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ine question subject fror Luke 18:8 
WaS Suggested during a conversation with 
‘ip. Horace Le. Day, New York City - as one 
rarely scrutinized yet containing the 
query which is the key to all she signs 
of the times." Mr, Day says: "This book 
Rat re | | | 
eres mae pikiee a “y presents tne Divine 
Sembee Ages, the W nence end Whither 
te a an cies Sr and should be in 
une nana of every teacher, preacher and 
missionary,” 


Library of The Theological Seminary 


PRINCETON - NEW JERSEY 


D7 KE 


PRESENTED BY 


M. Paulson 





- 
——E 








The author has tried to present in 
small compass a large mass of truth and 
knowledge that should make a helpful and 
popular textebook in Christian homes and 


institutions. He has shown the necessity | 


and the supply of divine wisdom in the 
matter of Christian philosophy, including 
a convincing exhibition of the fallacies 
of the pseudophilosophies of the day. 

The book is apologetic, declaring that 
God can only be known by revelation, and 
not by science or philosophy (Job 11:7-9; 
Matte. 16:13-17; Matt. 22:29). Above ali, 
the author is firm in the faith as to the 
second coming of Christ, pre millenial 
and imminent. His visible return for His 
bride, the Church, made up of all true 
believers regardless of visible church 
affiliation. Who will view as "scoffers" 
these who deride this glorious forecast 
referred to more than 350 times. It is 
the key to all prophecy and the highway 
of the New Testament. So vital is the. 
knowledge of God's plan for the end of 
this age that neither education, legisla- 
tion, nor combination will be found to 
end the night of sin and sorrow; the 
darkness will continue "till He come”; 
then for every child of the day, the 

Gawn will break and the shadows flee 
AWAY. (Wed se) 





Digitized by the Internet Archive 
in 2022 with funding from 
Princeton Theological Seminary Library 


https://archive.org/details/shalljesusfindfa0Oherg 


SHALL JESUS FIND 
PAITH ON BKARTH? 


By 


Henry J. Herge 


Published for 
The Author 
611 Tenth Street 
College Point, N. Y. 


By 
Wale NSM. SapANks 


(SUTURE ON og & NEW YORK CITY 





a 


Copvricut, 1924 
*BYS, (as 
Henry J. HEerceE. 


ul 





INTRODUCTION 


Philosophy may be defined as the love of wisdom. It regards 
wisdom as the principal thing. It is resolved to get wisdom, 
to get understanding, at all costs, esteeming them above all other 
riches. 

Philosophy may also be defined as the fruit of the love of wis- 
dom, the wisdom gained by a zealous search for it, that mastery 
of the principles of life and its relationships which furnishes a 
governing and working scheme of thought in that progression 
through time which we call living. 

Philosophy is synthetic. It loves the wisdom that can sum up 
the fundamental principles of life in one word. It seeks a first 
cause in all cases. It would merge second causes into a first 
cause and find one key to all problems. It would find and use 
talismanic, sententious solution amid the mysteries which sur- 
round us. This desire for one comprehensive term is the charm 
of rationalistic and evolutionary philosophy. It is also, and 
properly, the incentive of the student of theology, that science of 
God and His universal relationships which furnishes the noblest 
philosophy, the only true wisdom, the sole and sufficient satis- 
faction of the philosophic mind. 

A sound philosophy of life is what Christ referred to when He 
said, “But one thing is needful,” thus setting forth a faith in Him- 
self that would work by love as the fundamental principle of 
right living. It is this answer to the questioning mind of man 
that is the need and the real demand of our times. Again the 
world by wisdom has not known God, and again it pleases God 
to offer it Christ as both the wisdom and the power of God, 
not only the wisdom, but also the power to fulfil it. The world 
was never more needy of this wisdom, hidden indeed from the 
wise and understanding, but revealed unto babes, than at the 
present time. Perhaps the world was never more deeply, though 
unconsciously, looking for the coming of Him who is to be “The 


desire of all nations” when all human wisdom and philosophies 
3 


+ Introductory 


shall have failed. The wisdom proposed to our first parents as 
the reward of disobeying God has proved a sorry thing indeed. 
It knows evil as an experience and good as a theory. But that 
wisdom which is from above, that is first pure and then obe- 
dient, knows good by experience and understands evil well 
enough to avoid it. It has a true philosophy and a fruitful under- 
standing. The feeling after an unknown God that characterized 
ancient Athens and its philosophers is, by a charitable interpreta- 
tion, the secret of the gropings of the modern mind. We sup- 
pose that still, to paraphrase a saying of Christ’s, many prophets 
and righteous men desire to see the things which we see, and see 
them not, we think many are in search of the secret of life’s 
enigma, may it please the Light of the world to open their eyes. 


It is the aim of this commendable work on “Shall Jesus Find 
Faith on Earth?” to supply this more or less realized need of 
our strange and disturbed era. With a learned and thorough re- 
view of the history of philosophy, with an uncompromising ad- 
herence to evangelical truth, with fervency of spirit and earn- 
estness of purpose, Dr. Herge has made a new and valuable con- 
tribution to the truth of the spiritual character of philosophy. 
He has brought to the interpretation of philosophy the one 
element which has been left out, the super-natural element, 
for want of which all human wisdom is foolishness, and with 
which all true thinking falls into harmony with a universal divine 
system. He has revived the perishing idea of a teaching Church 
and insisted upon the supreme importance of divine revelation. 
Particularly, he has set forth the wisdom of God as embracing 
Christ’s dispensational place as King over all the earth, a King- 
dom of God that will be brought to pass in His righteousness, 
though not in ours. He has seen that prophetic utterance of 
Socrates, “We cannot change the moral nature of mankind, we 
must wait until someone comes,” fulfilled and still to be fulfilled 
in the coming of Him who has now gone into a far country, to 
receive for Himself a kingdom AND TO RETURN. 

Catskill, N. Y. CHRISTOPHER G. HAZARD. 


PREFATORY DECLARATION 


Adding to the ever increasing number of books is indeed need- 
less where there is no claim to originality of conception, novelty 
of method, or exceptional faculty. The product before us makes 
no apology in that it is an earnest endeavor to fulfil a solemn vow 
to be diligent in such studies as help to the knowledge of the 
truth. There is a larger purpose, and in its development no 
doubt mistakes here and there appear, but we “lay claim to an 
honest intention, a temper of obedience, a dread of error, and 
a desire to serve.” At the outset then let it be understood that 
the following pages lay claim to originality perhaps in so far as 
can be said that the matter under discussion has never to our 
knowledge been similarly treated. 

From the whole we may learn that the philosophy of the world 
was caught in an eddy of vast dimensions and “only moved in a 
circle with way stations along the route, never able to escape 
from the circular movement of human thought.” For this 
reason what an awful whirlpool of confusion throughout the 
ages, with the rise and fall of many systems intended to benefit 
mankind. What stupendous force based on evolution ready to 
break for the last time and crash with all that it has built up. 
It is in apostasy that the philosophy of history reaches a climax. 
Citing the foremost Christian Apostle, we find that he never con- 
fused the readjustment of circumstances with the transforma- 
tion of life as the philosophers have done and are still doing as 
social reformers. “He saw that when the social crusader had 
done his uttermost, the overwhelming foe was still alive and 
rampant. And what is the good of springs of prosperity if some- 
thing remains which turns man’s sweet waters into bitterest 
draughts? What is the good of a new Eden if we remain under 
the tyranny of the old devil? Social progress may multiply our 
material comforts; it will never give us inward peace.”’ 

“There is only one way for philosophy to escape from its situa- 


tion and find the current on the bosom of the river of thought 
5 


6 Prefatory Declaration 


which will carry it on to its destination, That current is re- 
ligious experience wherein man’s upward soaring thought is met 
by God’s descending revelation and love. When the real cur- 
rent of thought is once reached, a new day will dawn for 
philosophy, and ere long the philosophers will see the gleam on 
the gates of pearl and the sparkle on the jasper walls of the city 
of God, whither they would find the way.” 

The author has studied with profound interest much that has 
been written in opposition to this view, but did not hesitate to 
avail himself after thorough, prayerful contemplation and judg- 
ment of any sentiment which commended itself in accordance 
with the Word of God. How far he is indebted to both nega- 
tive and positive writers, including every phase of knowledge, 
is beyond determination. What is intended is the declaration of 
the immutable truth, which alone can make men free; the separa- 
tion of the true from the false; leading step by step to the great 
truth that the real and uplifting understanding of God must 
be revealed to man; that there is no religion or philosophy ex- 
cept the Christian, so capable of giving man a substantial hope, 
and a true and unvarying standard by which to measure his 
achievement. 

Included is the fact that knowledge is debt; culture is obli- 
gation; and that man is not fully alive until he has learned that 
he does not live by bread alone; that it is the Spirit which 
quickeneth, the flesh profiting nothing. Thus is seen the suprem- 
acy of the teachings of Jesus over all others. He who possesses 
Him as the embodiment of truth is forever free from doubt 
and uncertainty and must become a channel through whom the 
life giving waters flow to brighten the lives of others. 

It is for these reasons that a prayerful yet rigid testing of what 
follows is solicited, which as a whole will be justified only on 
the merits of its definiteness of aim and purpose, together with 
the object in view, determining whether it is worthy to be re- 
ceived, and how it is to be judged. If it is found as believed, 
in conformity with the knowledge, plan and purpose of an all 


— 


Prefatory Declaration / 


wise, loving God and Father, as opposed to “the sleight of men, 
and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive’; 
then our humble service will not be in vain, nor shall His Word 
return unto Him void. No greater purpose or reward on our 
part can be desired than that ‘“‘the Way, the Truth, and the Life” 
be revealed in clearer light descending from the cardinal prin- 
ciple of all light, goodness and love; Jesus Christ our Lord, 
Saviour and Hope of Glory. 

The writer is indebted and most grateful to the Rev. Christo- 
pher G. Hazard, D.D., of Catskill, N. Y., for his admirable in- 
troduction; to the Rev. Prof. Fredrick Mueller, of Albany, N. 
Y., for his encouraging and commending recension; to the Rev. 
Arthur J. Smith, D.D., of Kew Gardens, N. Y., for his ex- 
ceptional critique, valuable suggestions and support; to Mrs. J. 
Finley Shepard, of New York City and the First Reformed 
Church of College Point, N. Y., for generous beneficence; and 
MosteotvalletoeNlr. Eloraccslamivay cor Newry ork: City, for his 
fraternal interest and indefatigible labors; all of whom, seeing 
the possibility of this work, for the furtherance of the truth, 
helped send it on its way in the hope of touching many lives. 

lake dak 


REFERENCES 


History of Religions, Allan Menzies, D.D., (Scribners). 

Religions of Primitive Peoples, (Putnam). 

Science and the Bible, Morris, (Ziegler & McCurdy). 

What the World Believes, Hager, (Gay Bros. ). 

Works of Cor. Tacitus, Murphy, (Thos. Wardle). 

Chips from a Workshop, Max Mueller, 4 vols. 

History of Religion, E. Renan. 

Beyond Good and Evil, Nietzsche. 

Necessity of Revelation, Campbell. 

Moral Uses of Dark Things, Bushnell. 

Odyssey and Iliad, Homer. 

Descent of Man, Darwin. 

Tropical Nature and Other Essays, Wallace. 

Prehistoric Man, Lubbock. 

Hibbert Lectures, Sayce. 

Greek and Roman Antiquities, Anthon. 

Connection and Principles of Natural and Revealed Religion. 
Sykes. 

Jewish Encyclopedia. 

Greek and Roman Mythology, J. M. Tatlock, (Century Co.). 

History of Philosophy, C. J. Webb, (H. Holt Co.). 

Psychology of Religion, Starbuck, (Scribners). 

Christianity and Science, Peabody, (Carter). 

Varieties of Religious Experience, Prof. Wm. James, (Long. 
Green; ‘Ca. ). 

Psychology of Religious Belief, Pratt, (Macmillan). 

The Meaning of History, Harrison, (Macmillan). 

Ancient History, Myers, (Ginn & Co.). 

Psychology of Politics and History, Mathews, (Harv. Univ. 
Press. ). 

Scripture in Light Modern Disc. and Knowl., Geike, (Hurst). 


Channing’s Works, (Am. Unitarian Assoc.). 
8 


References 9 


The Old Testament in the Jewish Church, W. R. Smith, (Ap- 
pleton). 

Land of Israel, Stewart. 

Studies of Great Subjects, Frude. 

Curiosities of Literature, I. D’Israeli. 

Constitution of Man, George Combe. 

Thomas Chalmers’ Works. 

Christianity and the Social Crisis, Rauschenbusch, (Scribners). 

Plain Papers on Prophetic Subjects, Trotter. 

Social Elements, Henderson, (Scribners). 

History of Decline and Fall Roman Empire, 8 vols., Gibbon. 

Christianizing the Social Order, Rauschenbusch, (Scribners). 

History of Modern Europe, 5 vols., Russell. 

Social Idealism and the Changing Theology, G. B. Smith, (Mac- 
millan). 

History of Ancient Philosophy, Windleband, (Scribners). 

Pope’s Works, Warburton, (Bascom). 

The Problem of Human Life, Euken, (Scribners). 

The Sociology of the Bible, Schenck, (Board Pub. R. C. A.). 

Social Principles of Jesus, Rauschenbusch, (Assoc. Press). 

Socialism and Character, Vida D. Scudder, (Houghton, Mifflin 
Or): 

Christ’s Social Remedies, Montgomery, (Putnam). 

Studies in Evolution of Industrial Society, Ely, (Chautauqua 
Press). 

Prof. Rauschenbusch’s Christ, and Social Crisis, Haldeman, 
(Cook). 

Christ in the Social Order, Clow, (Hodder Stoughton Co.). 


CONTENTS 
SHALL JESUS FIND FAITH ON EARTH? 


1. ACCORDING TO THE HISTORY OF RELIGION; or, 
THE RELIGION OF PRIMITIVE CREDULITY, 


a) The permanent and universal foundations of primitive 
religious belief; reasons for similarity of religious be- 
lief in all primitive peoples. The ever present principles 
of religion as a psychic phenomenon. (pages, 17—25. 


b) The power of words; potency of the curse; sacred 
names; the ceremonial law; divination and prediction. 
(pages, 26—29. 

c) Primitive religion as expressed in the Rite. Earliest 
species of sacrifice; real end to be achieved by sacrifice. 
(pages, 30—34. : 

d) Heathen or pagan religion as a means of social better- 
ment. The family. Advance of positive knowledge; 
primitive practice of art. (pages, 35—39. 

e) Did primitive religion exert an improving influence on 
the life of the individual? Vindication of revealed re- 
ligion. (pages, 40—47. 


SHALL JESUS FIND, BATT ON hatin 


2, ACCORDING .TO \ANGIENT,) PHIVOSOPH Ye eee. 
SCHOOLS OF GREECE, THETR INBDUEN Crary 
AND NOW. A comparison of the ethical principles as de- 
veloped by the philosophers of Greece (Thales to Aristotle), 
with those taught by our Master and His immediate followers. 
(pages, 48—5I. 

a) Discussion of the development of Pagan Philosophy 
prior to the birth of Jesus; influence of its votaries; the 


various schools, what they stood for. Character of each 
Io 


Contents 11 


oft the great’ leaders of thought in ancient Athens. 
(pages, 52—79. 
b) Can the divine purpose be recognized in the intellectual 


awakening that preceded the appearance of our Saviour? 
(pages, 80—86. 


le ale) Ps Goa OUIN ON Teele ONAN RSET sa 


pee eC OR DING LOSCH EPS YCHOLOGY OL REMIGION ; 
Pee Ni oY CH COC GAAS ERGs OM REETGIOUS 
Peele NG EH 

a) Nature and elements of the psychic life; importance of 
our instinctive life; nature of religious belief. (pages, 
QI—103. 

b) The emotions in religious life; emotional progression as 
revealed by the yielding of fear and awe to reverence, 
admiration, gratitude and tenderness. (pages, 104—113. 

c) Suggestibility. Theory of hypnotic phenomenon; nor- 
mal and abnormal suggestibility. Difference between re- 
vivals of the past and revival meetings of today. 
(pages, [14—123. 

d) Educational means of creating stability in (a) the in- 
dividual; (b) society. (pages, 124—1I3I. 


Sit Vien eo Wom Ome ED OND MART ie 


pee CCORDING TO SOCIAL SCIENCE: or, SOME, SO- 
ie wee ROB WES ORS THES PRESENT DAY. ofA ystudy 
of social questions as presented in cities of 5000 or more in- 
habitants, from the viewpoint of the Christian. 


a) A comprehensive definition of society. (pages, 14—147. 

b) Nature’s teaching. (pages, 148—155. 

c) The family, its importance to the State; it sometimes 
seems that this subject is not receiving the attention it 


12 Contents 


should. The mad pursuit of wealth and pleasure in too 
many instances seems to have dulled the senses to all 
that is sacred in the home life. (pages, 156—164. 

d) The education that is worth while; will not the ideal cur- 
riculum embrace something more than a knowledge of 
literature, the sciences, or mere technical skill? (pages, 
165—172. 

e) The Church, its mission. Does this, the greatest moral 
force of the present age, recognize fully its responsibility 
as a factor in the every day life of the community? 


(pages, 173—183. 


SHALL: JESUS FINDSEATITs@ Neier ieee 


5, ACCORDING TO; THE PHILOSOPEY OFS i etna. 
or, HISTORY PHILOSOPHIGALLEY CONSIDEREL: 


a) What is the message of the ages to the nations of the 
present era? (pages, 188—200. 

b) Are the leading governments of the present time in- 
terpreting the message intelligently, or are they driving 
blindly toward the rocks on which so many ships of State 
have foundered in the past? (pages, 201—209. 

c) The Christian Philosophy in history; force exerted at 
the present time. Conclusion. (pages, 210—226. 


SHALL JESUS FIND FAITH ON EARTH? 
[. 
ACCORDING TO 
THE HISTORY OF RELIGION; 


or, 
THE RELIGION OF PRIMITIVE CREDULITY 
CHAPTER I. 


On the battlefield of Europe, over and above military impe- 
rialism and commercial jealousy, two great spiritual forces 
wrestled for supremacy; the philosophy of Jesus the Christ and 
the philosophy of Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche, even as they 
were struggling in the minds of the brilliant thinkers of the world 
long before the conflagration burst forth. 

Nietzsche saw the universe only as a great chemical laboratory ; 
a world of atomic activity. Human destiny, character, conduct, 
he interpreted only in relations corresponding to the “action of 
nitric acid on oxide of nitrogen.” All individual happiness, all 
higher values and spiritual aspirations resolved themselves into 
atomic activity. 

Christianity in his estimation was infinitely inferior to the 
pagan religions. He claimed that the doctrines of the Prince of 
Peace were destructive to the principles of Teutonic supremacy. 
Instead of ““Blessed are the meek,’ Nietzsche’s beatitudes blessed 
only the “valiant, for they shall be called, not the children of 
Jehova, but the children of Odin and Thor, who were immeasur- 
ably greater.” 

In his “Beyond Good and Evil,” sect. 259, he condemns Chris- 
tianity as the greatest of all possible corruptions. “It has left,” 
he says, “nothing untouched by its depravity. It combats all 
good, red blood, all hope and life. It is the one immoral shame 
and blemish upon the human race. It is both unreasonable and 
degrading. It is the most dangerous system of slave morality 


the world has ever known. It has waged a deadly war on the 
13 


14 Shall Jesus Find Faith on Earth? 


highest type of man. It has put a ban on all that is healthy in 
man.” 

Imperialism has again met its Waterloo, but is not completely 
vanquished, as the philosophy of history will prove. Just so the 
hydra headed evil spirit of this world’s false science and phil- 
osophy, though wounded for a time, will reappear to combat 
with truth and revelation, when at last it will be fully annihilated. 

Much research has proven that Nietzschian reasoning is gen- 
erally maintained by specialists so-called in Ethnology, Ethnog- 
raphy and the study of Comparative Religions, who begin their 
reasoning with the premises of evolution, reaching perhaps a 
sort of ethical climax in the teachings of Jesus, but making no 
distinction between the ethnic and the revealed religions; and 
therefore, as in all subjective reasoning, the result is chaotic. 

Truth once again places such specialists in a class by them- 
selves, whose destructive criticism, if embraced by the masses, 
the burden bearers of the world, would involve a deluge of blood, 
revolution and destruction, rivaling in terror anything the world 
has ever seen. Let man’s desires be dragged downward, and he 
will follow them to destruction. 

Far be it from the Christian scholar to give the impression that 
the ethnic religions must be approached from the angle of hostil- 
ity. If this impression is evident in what is to follow, let it be 
understood that such a course is not intended, allowing only 
facts to speak for themselves, wherein we would be fair and 
commend all things good and beautiful. Many things excite 
our admiration in the upward reach of the human mind, in spite 
of insurmountable difficulties seeking after the Unseen, if hap- 
pily it may find Him. 

Only as man’s goal is lifted far into the upper altitudes is 
he upborne to higher planes of thought, conduct and aspira- 
tion. Instead of Darwinian “Gemmules,”’ Spencerian “Vitalized 
Molecules,’ and Nietzschian “Atoms,” may we ever be found 
standing on the world old foundation fact that man was made 
in the image of God, his ideas, though finite, akin to the Divine; 


Shall Jesus Find Faith on Earth? 15 


that in his original constitution, as the design of his Creator, he 
was formed a religious creature. 

_In this man is alone, able to ascertain the idea of God, to be- 
lieve in Him; to strive to become like Him, to worship Him as 
God. This inward light, this consciousness of God, the sense 
of the existence of a Being supreme, absolute, with whom men 
have to do, and the light of reason which tells them of good and 
evil, the apostle speaks of when he says, (Rom. 1:32), “They 
knew the judgment of God, that they which commit such things 
are worthy of death.” 

Thus also man stands alone, constituted to recognize the light 
without, the light of nature, which most eloquently certifies to 
him of the Maker’s eternal power and Godhead, with a growing 
conception of the unity of nature, taught of the one mind, the 
one intelligence, the one builder and architect of it all. 

It is reasonable to suppose then, and even confirmed by the 
most ancient accounts, that the knowledge of religion was com- 
municated to the first parents of the human race by a revelation 
from God, and from them handed down to their descendants. 


Having therefore primarily to deal with natural religion, we 
find it to be the science of God as drawn from nature, including 
not only the outer world, but man himself, with his conscience 
and other powers. Ethnologists of the modern school deny any 
such distinction, and look upon all religions alike as more or 
less enlightened expressions of mental traits common to all man- 
kind in every known age. 

Religion, according to scientific methods, they claim, con- 
cedes the exclusive possession of truth to none. And then, while 
ignoring the fact of revelation, they courteously claim that the 
science of Ethnology neither attacks nor defends the beliefs 
which it studies, that it confines itself to examining their charac- 
ter and influence alone by the lights of reason and history. Then 
rather call it the science of deluded fancy or detestable im- 
posture, for science as science knows nothing of God, revelation 


16 Shall Jesus Find Faith on Earth? 


or immortality; and, ignoring these facts and laws of the spir- 
itual realm, no wonder the theory of evolution is misleading. 

Disregarding this position altogether, we find that the notion 
of one supreme God was never entirely extinguished in the 
Pagan world; yet His true worship was in great measure lost 
and confounded amid a multiplicity of idol deities. In reference 
to the depravity of man’s nature, Pascal once said, “It is of 
dangerous consequence to present to man how near he is to the 
level of beasts, without showing him at the same time his great- 
ness. It is likewise dangerous to let him see his greatness with- 
out his meanness. It is more dangerous yet to leave him ignorant 
of either; but very beneficial that he should be made sensible of 
both.” 

Man’s greatness can only be developed through the grace of 
God. Without this knowledge as revealed in “The Sacrifice 
once for All” man is hopelessly depraved in sin and utterly lost. 
It is this wilful disposition on the part of man, of naturalism 
as opposed to revelation, that caused God to speak thus through 
His prophet: “I have nourished and brought up children, and 
they have rebelled against me. The ox knoweth his owner, and 
the ass his master’s crib: but Israel doth not know, my people 
doth not consider. Ah sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity, 
a seed of evildoers, children that are corrupters: they have for- 
saken the Lord, they have provoked the Holy One unto anger, 
they are gone away backward.” (Isa. 1:2-4). These facts are 
clearly evidenced in the study of the religions of primitive credu- 
lity. 


CHAPTER II. 


1) THE PERMANENT AND UNIVERSAL FOUNDA- 
TIONS OF PRIMITIVE RELIGIOUS BELIEF. The main de- 
parture from worshipping the true God is first seen in the deifica- 
tion of the heavenly bodies, perhaps in Egypt, which naturally be- 
came the highest and most reasonable conception of the eternal 
and first principle of the universe, and where God became the 
“Unknown.” According to Diodorus Siculus, the Egyptians began 
with the worship of the sun and moon, and thence proceeded to 
worship the elements, the earth, water, fire, and air; and at last 
came to worship animals and reptiles. Thus idolatry increased 
among them. The abuse of the hieroglyphical characters and 
sacred symbols, which were in early use in Egypt, contributed not 
a little. Under pretense of superior wisdom, the purity and sim- 
plicity of the ancient religion became more and more corrupted. 

Similarly the Phoenicians, Assyrians and Chaldeans reverenced 
the sun and moon and stars. Here began the study of astronomy, 
from which developed astrology, a pseudo science. Speculating 
on the heavenly bodies they looked upon them as animated be- 
ings, which view later even the learned Rabbi Maimonides held, 
asserting that the celestial orbs were intelligent and. rational 
animals, which worship, praise and celebrate their Creator and 
Lord; and he represented many Jewish doctors of the same 
opinion. Philo Biblius, the translator of Phoenician history, 
claimed that the Phoenicians accounted the sun to be the only 
Lord of Heaven. Also the patriarch Job, (31:26-28), refers to 
this practice in Arabia, regarding it as a denial of the living 
God. The Persians very early worshipped the heavenly bodies, 
long before Abraham appeared on the stage of history. 

This then became a universal practice, especially during the 
period of the Law Giver Moses, in Israel, for we find him de- 
nouncing it in his writings. The Greeks worshipped the heaven- 
ly bodies, but as they advanced in culture, other deities were 


added, culminating in a system of mythology stupendous in 
17 


18 Shall Jesus Find Faith on Earth? 


outline and filled with corrupt practices. Cicero, speaking for 
the Romans, said, “Behold this resplendent height,’ meaning 
the blue vault of heaven, “which all men invoke as Jove. Thou 
seest the high immeasurable expanse of ether which encompas- 
seth the earth in its tender embrace; this regard as the chief of 
gods, celebrate this as Jupiter.’ (De Natura Deorum, cap. 2 
et25 

In the Pythagorean sense, ether was held to be animated and 
the cause of the formation and order of things, and universal- 
ly diffused, of which the souls of men were supposed to be 
particles. The Orphic Verses describe the sun as “having an 
eternal eye of righteousness, that seeth all things and is the 
light of life.’ (Campbell’s Nec. of Rev., p. 185-186). 

The Hebrews were familiar with this type of idolatrous wor- 
ship during their captivity in Egypt, both from the contiguity of 
On, the chief seat of the worship of the sun, as implied in the 
name itself, “House of the Sun,” and also from the connection 
between Joseph and Potipherah, “he who belongs to Ra’ the 
priest of On. (Gen. 41:45). Later in idolatry the Hebrews 
themselves worshipped the sun in the form of Baal of the 
Phoenicians; at another time the Molech or Milcom of the Am- 
monites; and then the Hadad of the Syrians. 

The sun-god was the supreme male divinity of the ancients. 
Even the name Baal itself signifies lord or master. From the 
Jewish Encyclopedia, (vol. 2, p. 379), we learn that “the ques- 
tion as to the origin of the worship of Baal among the Hebrews 
can only be settled by tracing it among the Semites in general 
and especially among the Babylonians. Here the name (Bel) 
is that of one of the earliest and most honored of national deities. 
Bel was the special god of Nippur, perhaps the oldest of Baby- 
lonian cities. Nippur was in the earliest known times a religious 
center, and the prestige of Bel was so great that when the city 
of Babylon became supreme, his name was imposed upon that of 
Merodach, the patron deity of the capitol, who was thenceforth 
known as Bel-Merodach, or simply Bel. It would appear that 


Shall Jesus Find Faith on Earth? 19 


the Hebrews first learned Baal-Worship from the agricultural 
Canaanites. Apart from the offerings of fruits from the earth 
and the firstlings of cattle, much is not known with regard to 
the rites of the popular Baal-Worship.” 

From other sources, such as Frude in his “Great Subjects,” 
p. 273, we find that “Baal rose in his sun-chariot in the morning, 
scattered the evil spirits of the night, lightened the heart, 
quickened the seed in the soil, clothed the hill-side with waving 
corn, made the gardens bright with flowers, and loaded the vine- 
yard with purple clusters. When Baal turned away his face, 
the earth languished, and dressed herself in her winter mourn- 
ing robe. Baal was:the friend who held at bay the enemies of 
mankind, cold, nakedness and hunger; who was kind alike to 
the evil and the good, to those who worshipped him and those 
who forgot their benefactor.” 

Though ethnologists generally doubt that the Great-Nature 
Power Worship came first, yet it appears reasonable from the 
facts adduced. It is afterward that it became broken into poly- 
theistic fragments, wherein we find the tribal and later the na- 
tional heroes memorialized and idolized. 

Bushnell in his “Moral Uses of Dark Things,” p. 96, says, “If 
we speak of temples and monuments, the stones of the Incas re- 
main, but the Titans that piled them, are gone.’ Mythology 
seems to apply the name ‘Titan’ to any one of the children of 
Uranus and Gaea. They are said to have had six sons and six 
daughters. This very ancient family of giants became the authors 
and objects of Grecian worship, originally living in Phoenicia, 
and then emigrating into Greece. 

It is claimed that Egypt laid the foundation of Greek myth- 
ology, but as the names of the Titan family are Phoenician, it 
is likely that Greece, as well as Egypt, owed its mythology to 
Phoenicia, and very marked is the similarity between the three. 
These systems abound in the worship of this deified family. 
Their adventures, knowledge of the arts and inventions, with 
which they inspired the people wherever they wandered, created 


20 Shall Jesus Find Faith on Earth? 


a religious admiration for them while in the mortal body. They 
were regarded as the incarnation of natural forces. ‘Thus the 
worship of the luminaries and the vault of heaven was early 
transferred to these gods and godesses, the individual members 
of the Titan family. Then, incited to rebellion by the mother, 
Gaea, the children dethroned the father, Uranus, and enthroned 
their brother Kronos, who again was replaced by his son Zeus. 
Hence there arose the fiction of mighty, noble and ofttimes very 
mean deeds, so graphically presented in the heroes of Homer’s 
Odyssey and the Iliad. 


And as Egypt and Greece early adopted the mythology which 
originated with Phoenicia, so Rome inherited the myths and 
worship of a conquered people. Tertullian upbraided the Ro- 
mans, that notwithstanding their high regard for their ancestry, 
they had fallen from those of their institutions. They restored 
the mysteries of Bacchus, which by a decree of the senate had 
been exterminated out of Rome and all Italy. The Egyptian 
deities, particularly Serapis, Isis, Harpocrates, Cynocephalus, or 
Anubis, which had been expelled from the Capitol by the con- 
suls, and their altars overturned, were again admitted. So far is 
it from being true that the Romans grew in the knowledge of re- 
ligion, of the true God, as they grew in literature, that on the 
contrary they were still more immersed in idolatry and polythe- 
ism. Rome became at length the receptacle of all kinds of idolatry. 
Therefore, disregarding all these developments in: the Minor 
Nature Deities, it remains clear that the permanent and universal 
foundations of all primitive beliefs are to be found in the Great- 
Nature Power Worship. 


(a) THE SIMILARITY OF RELIGIOUS (BEUI iia 
ALL PRIMITIVE PEOPLES, evident from the previous argu- 
ment, now requires a reason. Man is a religious being because 
he is so constituted. This fact with every race of men establishes 
a firm opposition to Mr. Charles Darwin’s “Descent of Man,” 
(1871), which startled the world by maintaining that ‘man 


Shall Jesus Find Faith on Earth? an 


developed by slow and almost imperceptible stages from lower . 
animals.” 


Mr. A. R. Wallace, one of the foremost naturalists, the most 
eminent supporter of some of Mr. Darwin’s views, says in his 
“Tropical Nature and Other Essays,” p. 286, “It is a curious cir- 
cumstance that, notwithstanding the attention that has been 
directed to the subject in every part of the world, and the nu- 
merous excavations connected with railways and mines, which 
have offered such facilities for geological discoveries, no advance 
whatever has been made for a considerable number of years in 
detecting the time or mode of man’s origin. The Paleolithic 
(old rough) flint implements, first discovered in the north of 
France are still the oldest undisputed proofs of man’s existence; 
and, amid the countless relics of a former world that have been 
brought to light, no evidence of any one of the links that must 
have connected man with the lower animals has yet appeared.” 


“The doctrine of the transformation of species,” says Heer, 
(vol. 2. pp. 282, 291), “is most decidedly contradicted by facts. 
Not only has no new species originated during the period of hu- 
man history, but even the lignites (woody coal), which go back 
to a much earlier time, exhibit the existing flora. The present 
Swiss Alpine plants are the descendants of the Alpine drift 
flora, but, though living under different physical conditions, it is 
impossible to distinguish those of the present day from plants 
of the drift flora of Iceland and Greenland.” 

“Tt is the same with marine animals,” continues Dr. Heer: “no 
new species has had its origin since the drift period. Nor is this 
peculiar to the drift. The same facts are true of preceding geolog- 
ical periods. The same species maintain their existence through 
long cycles, and often, in all parts of the globe, present precise- 
ly the same characteristics. The formation immediately follow- 
ing any earlier period, and belonging to a new epoch, may con- 
tain some species inherited from the preceding period, but the 
greater part of the species show us a new type, and present 


22 Shall Jesus Find Faith on Earth? 


distinct characteristics. There are no forms which would in- 
dicate a fusion of species.” : 

Sir J. Lubbock in his “Prehistoric Man,” firmly coincides with 
Prof. Max Mueller in his “Chips from a Workshop,” (vol. 4, 
p. 458), declaring that “man alone employs language; he alone 
comprehends himself; he alone has the power of abstraction; he 
alone possesses general ideas; he alone believes in God.” 

What a clashing of opinions among the scientists, and yet 
what concessions. When they agree to disagree, the choice of 
opinion is left to lay observation. Naturally then, as we trace 
man carefully and weigh the evidences, we find some pure tradi- 
tions and rays of some primeval light. These rays are visible and 
cannot be denied, as seen among other things, marvelous to be- 
hold, in the Egyptian civilization perhaps more than five thou- 
sand years ago, which produced an architecture which cannot be 
duplicated even today. 

That architecture, embodied all their ideas of religion, science, 
art, literature and philosophy. Possessing therefore a mere in- 
stinct for the worship of perhaps only an “Unknown God,” in 
whatever form, it is reasonable to suppose that man, though fal- 
len in Adam, because of disobedience toward a righteous God, 
was created a religious being, and, in an adult stage, so far pos- 
sessing faculties of attaining to religious worship by reflection 
and proper instruction, as to evidence in his constitution a capac- 
ity above that of the beasts of the field. 

It follows then that there could be no greater absurdity than 
to suppose beings with reason and intelligence to have evolved 
from a blind and unintelligent cause. But the main features of 
his constitution which present the reasons for a similarity of 
belief in all primitive peoples are to be found especially in his 
aspirations, conscience, wants, and experience. The human race 
has always conceived of some existence more exalted than man, 
because of unwillingness to shut itself up within its own limits, 
aspiring after intercourse with some divinity, craving to ally its 
destiny with a supreme power. 


Shall Jesus Find Faith on Earth? 23 


Depravity affecting all mankind, and conscience asserting it- 
self, as a last resort, some sort of religion was necessary to satis- 
fy the craving for the “lost Word,” and though falling back on 
mere “atoms and forces” which substituted God, they neverthe- 
less in their blindness desired some ennobling influence, seeking 
it either in the vastness of the universe, in humanity, among 
animals or in the mineral kingdom. The wants of man then 
proved the need of an existing God. He needed help, comfort 
and providence, which only such a God could supply; while his 
experience, brought forth the need of a Saviour, or at least an 
intercessor, as seen in the worship of Bel, Osiris and Vishnu, 
and even allied itself with sacrifice, and a priesthood, which 
claimed absolution from sin. 


Poon A eoOOPAR Re SENS UTE OR VER PRESEN? 
PRoNCiPLis OF RELIGION AS A’ PSYCHIC PHENOM- 
ENON. Reason cannot satisfy itself with merely observing 
what exists, but seeks to explore the origin of things, to find 
the First Cause. Reason is therefore an ever present and need- 
ful element in religion, whereby the sources of religious knowl- 
edge are increased, furnishing the mind with a variety of 
truths, fitting man to reason on the subject, and thus as he fol- 
lows the dictates of reason, the more confidently he relies 
on his conclusions. Reasoning, he counts the stars, weighs 
the mountains, fathoms the depths, and, the employment be- 
comes reason, for the succé§s is glorious. But, in “searching to 
find God unto perfection,’ (Job 11:7), reason must be silent: 
revelation must speak. 

Similarly in conscience is seen a natural tendency toward re- 
ligion, which not only enjoins the law of duty, but intimates that 
there is a Judge by whom this law will be sustained and executed. 
Reasoning in search after truth man is no better than his 
principles. Right principles lie at the foundation of moral 
obligation. Thus his conscience must be governed by light and 
truth, and just so far as his character is controlled by conscience, 


24 Shall Jesus Find Faith on Earth? 


it is controlled by principles, which in primitive man, as well 
as in all men since, are the same according to the degree of light 
possessed, which indeed is a phenomenon, and more so, since 
these principles are at the foundation of primitive credulity. 

It is only another evidence of a fall from a higher and nobler 
state. The true character of the pagan world is to be traced to 
the respective principles of their beliefs, and it is impossible that 
these people, in the exercise of their rational faculties should 
be controlled in any other way. 

If we pass next to the affections, we recognize again that man’s 
nature was formed for religion. The first affection awakened is 
filial love, a grateful sense of parental kindness, which is at the 
same time the seed and principle of religion. Thus the first 
spontaneous and developed impulse is not only an element of 
piety, which is the foundation of virtue, but emotion toward God, 
creating reverence, admiration for the beautiful, and gratitude. 

This is indeed a phenomenon, that religion is natural to every 
man, everywhere, and in all ages, and seen specifically in that the 
human soul has mainly two central principles which are essen- 
tially fitted to raise it to God; namely, the insatiate desire for 
happiness, and the longing for perfection, a deliverance from all 
evil, and the realization in character of that bright ideal of which 
all noble souls conceive. 

Henry Ward Beecher once declared that “religious systems do 
not create the religious nature. The religious nature itself, 
craving and longing for development, creates both the systems 
and the priests who minister in them. The heart, with its thou- 
sand tendrils, reaches forth to God, and in its reaching clasps 
whatever it may. A student, annoyed by the notes of the canary- 
bird in his window, says, ‘It is the robin in the opposite cage 
that makes the canary sing,’ and so he takes the robin away; but 
still the song goes on. It was not its companion that made it 
call, but something yearning out of its own little bosom; and 
because of this yearning, whether alone or with its mates, in 
summer or winter, in light or darkness, it still will sing.” 


Shall Jesus Find Faith on Earth? 25 


“So the heart yearns and calls for God; not because of out- 
ward solicitation, but because of the longing, the want it feels 
within. No difference of teachers or systems can change this 
nature of the soul. The ocean is the same, whatever craft sail 
up and down upon it, whether they be pleasure-boats, brigs, mer- 
chant-ships, or men-of-war; so whatever religious navigators 
may be going up and down the sea of life, its depths, and shores, 
and distant haven remain the same. The stars never change for 
astronomers or astrologers. They roll calmly above the storms 
and above opinions. So man’s nature does not vary for cir- 
cumstances, or conflicting views, but still wants God above, and 
fellow-man below.” 


CHAPTER III. 


2) THE POWER OF WORDS; POTENCY )0O isp 
CURSE; SACRED NAMES; THE CEREMONIAL LAW; 
DIVINATION AND PREDICTION. As there is reason to be- 
lieve that Jehovah communicated the fundamental principles of 
religion to the first parents of the human race, it is natural that 
the sacred word was traditionally taught their descendants. 
These traditions spread themselves generally among the tribes 
and nations concerning a Supreme Being who created the world 
and later flooded it with water. Bricks and tablets with inscrip- 
tions have been discovered, emanating from Accadian, Egyptian, 
Assyrian and Chaldean sources, coinciding with the narrative ot 
Moses, whilst many others so vary as to be contradictory. 


Even traditional stories of the ancient patriarchs and Hebrew 
leaders, mixed with pagan mythology, are found connected with 
those of the Egyptian and Greek gods. This illustrates how 
words became the channel of communication, and were not sim- 
ply spoken ideas, but the close inhabitants of the inner spiritual 
being. Thus many shrines, sacred groves, hills, mountains and 
streams tell of genii who were invoked by former generations. 
Plutarch affirmed that “if one traverse the world, it is possible to 
find cities without walls, letters, kings, coins, schools and theatres ; 
but a city without a temple, or that does not practice worship, 
prayers and the like, no one ever saw.” 


This is substantiated in the observation of Dr. Guthrie, that 
“man can as well live physically without breathing, as spiritually 
without praying. There is a class of animals, the cetaceous, 
neither fish nor sea-fowl, that inhabit the deep. It is their home; 
they never leave it for the shore; yet, though swimming beneath 
its waves and sounding its darkest depths, they have ever and 
anon to rise to the surface that they may breathe the air. With- 
out that these monarchs of the deep could not exist in the dense 


element in which they live, and move, and have their being. And 
26 


Shall Jesus Find Faith on Earth? 27 


something like what is imposed on them by a physical necessity, 
even natural man has to do by a spiritual one. It is by ever and 
anon ascending up to God, according to the light that he has, 
by rising through prayer into a loftier, purer region for supplies 
of Divine grace, that he maintains his spiritual life. Prevent 
these animals from rising to the surface, and they die from want 
of breath; prevent him from rising to God, and he dies for want 
of prayer.” 

Thus words, breathed out in petitions, when the heart is par- 
alyzed with grief and fear, or throbbing with joy, always sought 
the god whose existence was seldom doubted. In all primitive re- 
ligions the efficacy of sacred words not only influenced the re- 
lations of life, but bound the gods. They developed into songs, 
chants, charms, exorcisms or incantations by which demons 
could be set free or held at will, and spirits called from any 
quarter. 

(a) THEN THROUGH THE MAGIC WORD, the under- 
world for the time being was supposed to have lost its power. 
Dr. Allan Menzies, in his “History of Religion,” p. 96, informs 
us that though the character of spirits was unknown, yet “cer- 
tain charms and incantations were believed to have power over 
them, and communication with the unseen world took there- 
fore the form of magic. The earliest portions of the sacred 
literature consist of spells or charms believed to possess this vir- 
tue, and these were never displaced from the collection; on the 
contrary, new spells were written even after higher spiritual be- 
ings were known and more ethical forms of addressing had been 
devised.” 

“Especially were all pains and diseases ascribed to the agency 
of spirits or of sorcerers and witches, their human allies, and the 
sick person naturally sent for an exorcist to expel the spirit 
which was tormenting him. Some spirits were more powerful 
than others, and the stronger spirit was invoked to rebuke and 
drive out the weaker. The spirit of heaven and the spirit of 
earth were adjured to conjure the plague-demon, the demon who 


28 Shall Jesus Find Faith on Earth? 


was afflicting the eye, the heart, the head, or any other part of the 
body. Magic is everywhere an early form of religion which 
is only overshadowed, not killed, when a great religion arises, 
and which tends to reappear.” 

As to their imprecations of evil, Prof. Sayce, in his “Hibbert 
Lectures,” p. 309, says, “In ancient Assyria the power of the 
curse was such that the gods themselves could not transgress 
it.” Even the repetition of these imprecations of evil, as»stimu- 
lants, which became a mere jargon of words or unintelligible 
sounds called “the gift of togues,”’ is said to have had effect upon 
gods and demons alike, especially upon an enemy person or tribe. 

(b) The repetition of sacred names also grew into a form of 
ritual claimed to be divinely inspired, which ethnologists term 
“THE LAW AND THE PROPHETS?”= Ther lawywaewese 
sentially “TABOO,” a word taken from the Polynesian dialect, 
meaning to prohibit. These were established laws as to certain 
duties and actions in the tribe or nation, which if broken, often 
carried with them the sentence of death. Wallace, in his “Malay 
Archipelago,” p. 591, informs us that “a palm branch stuck 
across an open door, showing that the house is tabooed was a 
more effectual guard against robbery than any amount of locks 
and bars.” 

It is here again that Dr. Menzies, the ethnologist, with interest 
remarks, (Hist. Rel. p. 72), in opposition to the affirmation 
of Plutarch, “the early world had no temples, nor idols, nor 
priests: the worship of nature does not suggest the enclosing of 
a space for religious acts. The natural object being the sacred 
thing, worship is brought to it where it stands; the gift is car- 
ried to the tree or the well, and if the deities sre conceived as 
being above the earth, then the tops of hills are the spots where 
man can be nearest to them, High places are sacred in all 
lands. Groves and remote spots are also sacred. When man 
was carrying on his struggle with wild beasts he would regard 
with terror the places where they had their lairs and strongholds ; 
it was in this form that the feeling of mystery with which 


Shall Jesus Find Faith on Earth? 29 


moderns regard places where they are cut off from all human in- 
tercourse, first appealed to man. After this earliest stage had 
passed, and the grove had come to be regarded as the dwelling 
place of a deity, it became a place man did not dare to approach 
except with the necessary precautions. It became taboo, which 
indicated that which man must not touch, because it belonged to 
a deity. The god’s land must not be trodden, the animal dedi- 
cated to the god must not be eaten, the chief who represents 
the god must not be lightly treated or spoken of. There was 
danger at every step that one may touch on what is forbidden, 
and draw down on himself unforeseen penalties.” 


(c) CIVIL AND CEREMONIAL LAWS were at first com- 
bined and then later divided, proving that their gods, as they be- 
lieved, had now control over the tribes through ‘the priests, who 
uttered prophecies or predictions in oracles and divination, as 
they or certain mediums arose, versed in the practice of religious 
rites and startling phenomena. A curious treatise on DIVINA- 
TION, or the knowledge of future events, Cicero has preserved in 
a complete account of the state-contrivances which were practiced 
by the Roman government, to instill among the people those 
hopes and fears by which they regulated public opinion. Through 
the aruspex, the augur and the astrologer the superstitious minds 
of men were controlled. The pagan creed, now become obso- 
lete and ridiculous, has occasioned Cicero’s treatise to be rarely 
consulted; it remains, however, as a chapter in the history of 
man. 


CHAPTER IV. 


3) PRIMITIVE RELIGION AS EXPRESSED IN THE 
RITE. Myths, custom and sentiment then became the founda- 
tions for more or less elaborate rites in ceremonial worship, first 
used in the interest of the individual, then in communities and 
on special feast days, as talismanic, and that through magic 
force, by which to compel the will of the higher powers when 
not afraid of them; and then, in order to appease the wrath of 
the gods in the offering of sacrifices. 


(a) THE EARLIEST SPECIES, OF SACK IEIC I is arcuee 
seen in the rites of individual persons in the worship of some 
specific god, as a patron saint, who provided, kept and taught 
the mysteries of the faith. The child at birth, or perhaps a few 
days later, was given the name of this deity, which event was 
celebrated with much festivity. Numerous vows were laid on 
the child by the priest in the presence of this god as guardian 
angel, which the mother promised to fulfil until the child arrived 
at years of discretion. 


From twelve to fourteen years of age the boy or girl, pref- 
erably the boy; for girls were more often looked upon as soul- 
less, was prepared under this sacred name, known only to the 
immediate family and the priest, and through much ceremony 
ushered into the larger life by tests of all kinds, ofttimes very 
cruel and resulting in death. 


Perhaps the noblest conception of this rite is seen in the 
Athenian Oath. Each youth, coming to the threshold of man- 
hood, stood in the presence of the Judges of the city and sub- 
scribed to the famous oath: “I will not dishonor my sacred 
arms. I will not desert my fellow soldier, by whose side I may 
be set. I will leave my country greater and not less than when 
she is committed to me. I will reverently obey the laws which 


have been established, and in time to come shall be established by 
30 


+ oh pee met Ae 


Shall Jesus Find Faith on Earth? 31 


the judges. I will not forsake the temples where my fathers wor- 
shiped. Of these things the gods are my witnesses.” 


The person taking such an oath, and before some specified god, 
stood, lifting his hands toward heaven, reverently, frequently 
accompanied with a sacrifice according to the nature of the rite. 
Thus the girl also submitted to a ceremonial initiation into wom- 
anhood, which being ended, the priest called attention to the 
sacred and mysterious manner in which nature had announced 
the fact that she was ready to embrace the duties of matrimony. 
Such individual rites governed from birth to death, when it was 
hoped these would be rewarded by the patron god for all the 
service, worship and sacrifice rendered. 


(b) COMMUNAL RITES were celebrated at the annual or 
periodic festivals, lasting for many days. Dr. Rawson, in his 
“What the World Believes,” p. 52, describes the position of the 
priests as mediators between gods and men. ‘They offered the 
sacrifices and prayers of the people to their deities; and on the 
other hand, were employed by the gods to interpret their divine 
will to man. Thus the office of priest was held very sacred, and 
in some parts of Greece this dignity was equal to that of kings. 
Some temples were served by priestesses, who were chosen from 
the most noble families. Inheritance was the customary tenure 
by which the holy office was held; but it was also, in other cases, 
acquired by lot, by the appointment of the prince, or by the elec- 
tion of the people. 


“Every one appointed to be a priest was required to be free 
from bodily disease or ailment, and to possess a pure and upright 
mind; for it was not thought right that one who was imperfect 
or impure should take part in the worship of the gods, min- 
istering in holy things. To every god a different order of priests 
was consecrated. There was likewise a high-priest, who superin- 
tended the rest, and executed the most sacred rites and cere- 
monies. When the priests officiated in the temples, the garments 
which they wore were made of fine flax or linen. They common- 


32 Shall Jesus Find Faith on Earth? 


ly descended to the ankles, and were of a white color. They 
wore crowns, and their feet were bare. 

“Sacrifices were of different kinds. 1) Vows of free-will 
offerings: these were such things as were promised to the gods 
before, and paid after a victory. 2) Propitiatory offerings, to 
avert the wrath of some angry god. 3) Petitionary sacrifices, 
for success in any enterprise. 4) Such as were imposed by an 
oracle. 5) Sacrifices in honor of the gods, from respect and 
veneration in their worshippers, or the sacrifices offered by those 
who had escaped from some great danger. Different animals 
were consecrated to particular deities. A stag to Diana, a horse 
to the sun, a dog to Hecate, to Venus a dove. 

“Those who sacrificed to the infernal deities were dressed in 
black ; to the celestial in purple; and to Ceres in white. Various 
ceremonies were used in the performance of the sacrifice. The 
infernal god offerings, who were supposed to hate the light, 
were frequently made at midnight. The victim was killed by the 
priest, or sometimes by the most honorable person present. 
Prayers were offered up while the sacrifice was burning; and if 
the deity was a gay and aerial power, music was played to propi- 
tiate his favor. Sometimes they danced round the altars, while 
they sang the sacred hymns. Of all musical instruments the flute 
was chiefly used. After the sacrifice there was generally a feast, 
where the worshippers drank to Sos and continued to sing the 
praises of the god.” 

Masses of people gradually joined in these communal services. 
Though not so intended in the beginning, yet they developed 
more and more an appeal to their sensuous natures, which made 
them more popular. First they consisted in special offerings, 
which were burned upon their altars, gradually extending to a 
whole herd of bulls; then were added the sacred dances, sump- 
tuous banquets, national games and theatrical performances, from 
which emanated the tragedy, drama and comedy, in which they 
enacted the myths surrounding their gods and godesses from 
ancient times. 


Shall Jesus Find Faith on Earth? 33 


Here the Saturnalia and Bacchanalia are most conspicuous, in 
which drunkenness and sensuality were very common. Crimes, 
according to Livy (39:8) did not remain confined to the devotees 
of these gatherings, for many innocent people would be fraudu- 
lently drawn into these orgies, and if they protested, would be 
silenced by the deafening sounds of drums and cymbals. 

Sacrifices among the ancients were embodied in offerings of 
human beings, animals, cakes, fruits and libations, the last named 
in the form of pouring unmixed wine or other liquid, either on 
the ground, or ona sacrificial victim in honor ofa deity. As civili- 
zation improved, human sacrifices were gradually omitted, when 
they thought the gods would be satisfied with merely a few drops 
of human blood. However, for a long period these were pre- 
sented on annual or state occasions, as for instance at the festival 
of Apollo, when a human victim was thrown from some high 
precipice, only to be dashed in pieces on the rocks below, and in 
the presence of many witnesses. 

All primitive people, as far north as Germany, selected an- 
nually some of their best and most prominent children, some- 
times of a kingly household, who were killed, cut in pieces in the 
presence of the parents, and burned on the altar, believing there- 
by to satisfy the craving of their gods, and supposing these ever 
afterward to be serving the gods in the underworld. 

Gradually, as Eusebius observes, Emperor Adrian ordered 
these sacrifices abolished ; because the gospel of Jesus Christ had 
already made strong inroads on paganism, when only slaves and 
criminals were offered instead. As these practices receded, 
animal sacrifices became most common. The victim being selected 
according to the character of the god to whom it was offered. 
Very often large numbers of these were sacrificed at once, the 
gods delighting only in the savory odor and cloud of smoke that 
arose from the altars. 

Thus each god had his specific offering, either a bull, cow, 
ram, sheep, horse, dog or fish. During the ceremony, incense 
and wine were thrown on the carcass and prayers offered. These 


34 Shall Jesus Find Faith on Earth? 


ceremonies very often required the grossest licentiousness, ac- 
cording to instances already cited, and at the festivals of Bac- 
chus, the Lupercalia in honor of Pan, the Ludi Florales in honor 
of Flora, Cybele and Venus, all noted for their lewdness. 

It is to these that St. Peter refers, (I Pet. 4:3-4), “When we 
walked in lasciviousness, lusts, excess of wine, revellings, ban- 
quetings, and abominable idolatries.”” And it was a strange thing 
to the pagan mind that the Christians did “not run with them to 
the same excess of riot.” 

Of the unbloody sacrifices there were offered cakes and fruit. 
The cakes were made of flour or wax, and offered as a symbol 
of the real animal intended for offering, because of the great 
expenses to the poor, which thereby were avoided. Those of 
fruits and flowers were most common at the time of harvest as 
a tribute of gratitude. 

(c) There was alsoa REAL END TO BE ACHIEVED BY 
SACRIFICE. Not possessing the high ideal of the Hebrews 
in their burnt offerings, to whom these prefigured that great and 
admirable Oblation which should purge away all sin; the pagan 
mind had contracted as was common to all mankind, a real guilt, 
evident from the working of the individual conscience, proving 
that the moral law had been broken and which subjected the 
offender to death, temporal and eternal. They had for a long 
time that which remained of the ancient tradition concerning the 
true God, beside what was evident from His wonderful works in 
nature. 

This revelation should have checked their growing idolatry, 
which defect cannot be charged to God, nor even to some of their 
most eminent philosophers, who tried to dissuade them from 
many of their vulgar practices, but they must blame themselves 
and be judged accordingly. (Rom. 2:14). The natural mind 
then, conscious of the wrath of the gods they worshipped, had 
to be appeased in the form of a propitiation or atonement for sin. 
Nothing therefore was too good or expensive for this rite, where- 
by they hoped to attain mercy, forgiveness and immortal life. 


CHAPTER V. 


4) HEATHEN: OR PAGAN RELIGION AS A MEANS 
OF SOCIAL BETTERMENT. Modern ethnologists claim that 
the religions of primitive peoples were the means of their social 
betterment. The celebrated French atheist, Mons. de Voltaire 
represented them as “consisting only of morality and festivals 
or times of rejoicings.”” To accept such a statement would 
place the revealed religions either on a parallel, or deny them 
altogether, which object seems clear even to the uninitiated in the 
mysteries of ethnology. 

The fact of a distinction however, is clear. Instead of social 
betterment, there were only degradation and oppression. Much 
rather would we accept the words of Dr. Sykes, in his “Con- 
nection and Principles of Natural and Revealed Religion,” pp. 
431, 432, 383, where he says, that “by the addition of very much 
absurdity and folly, by the gross idolatries they had every where 
established, by the abundance of fables they had mixed with 
truth, by the apparent falsehoods they had embraced; and 
through the great danger which every good man incurred who 
should venture to show them the pure truth; there was the 
necessity of a reformation, and of calling men back to the 
rule of action. How to remove the loads of rubbish which by 
degrees had been thrown upon the beauteous fabric of truth, 
was more than the wisest mortal could tell or dare to undertake. 
Every crevice was stopped by which light might enter.” 

(a) Carefully acquainting ourselves with the writings of the 
ancients, we find the social and moral conditions then existing 
as one dark picture of immorality and crime. FAMILY LIFE 
as the unit of society had no stability. Certain learned men here 
and there tried to guide the people into a higher state of civiliza- 
tion and religion, but they only helped becloud the picture still 
more. Here and there as their women were elevated to positions 
of honor, to thrones, others as prophetesses and godesses, they 


nevertheless represented but an imperfect and immoral sense of 
35 


36 Shall Jesus Find Faith on Earth? 


their assumed characters. Their prostitution, yoked with super- 
stition, and sanctified by their rites, produced only evil effects 
upon private and public morals. From their sacred groves, 
shrines and temples emanated streams of pollution which entered 
every condition of society affecting the family most of all. 


Rome, reaching perhaps the highest stage of civilization pre- 
vious to the incarnation of Jesus Christ, considered children mere- 
ly slaves, and women as children of their own husbands. After 
the destruction of Carthage, certain laws in this connection were 
changed, allowing greater privileges; but as divorces increased, 
crimes multiplied, and the worst sins were committed with bare- 
faced audacity. 


The Greeks with all their pride of culture, religion, law, art, 
and disdaining others as barbarians, simply copied the laws and 
practices of others. Their religious civil laws, even those of the 
celebrated law-giver Lycurgus, were intended perhaps to make 
men good soldiers, but proved very defective indeed, according to 
Aristotle, in effecting civil justice and honesty; and in dealing 
with the slaves, often murdered in cold blood for fear they 
might become too numerous or powerful and endanger the state. 


With both Rome and Greece, uncleanness as a religious civil 
rite was accounted a glorious and honorable thing. Socrates 
might have said the same of the age of Seneca and Nero as he 
did of his own to his pupil Alcibiades, “Do not hope ever to suc- 
ceed in reforming the morals of men; the best course we can take 
is to wait patiently; yes, and we must wait until some one 
comes.” 


This sorrowful longing became the wailing cry of woman- 
kind, the family, and men everywhere. There was universal 
unbelief ; and still a longing to believe in something. There was 
universal inability to find anything worthy of belief. Pilate’s 
question, “What is truth?’—received no answer but its own 
tantalizing echo. ‘All religions are true,” the people said, “one 
is as good as another.” “All religions are false,” the philosophers 


Shall Jesus Find Faith on Earth? 37 


answered, “‘one is no better than another, solace yourselves with 
any or all, poor fools, it makes no difference.” 


The oracles were silent. Plato forbade intemperance, except- 
ing at the feast of Bacchus. Aristotle forbade lewd images ex- 
cepting those of the gods and godesses. The usual worship was 
one of horrible uncleanness. “It is difficult,’ said Pliny the 
Elder, “to say whether it might not be better for men to have 
no religion, than to have such an one as ours.” An argument 
may meet a contrary argument, but no argument can overwhelm 
a fact, and, in the face of these facts, and as opposed to the 
position taken by our modern ethnologists, we must affirm that 
the pagan religions were not a means of their social betterment. 


PHePAGAN VRELIGION AND HE ADVANCE, OF 
POSITIVE KNOWLEDGE. As the idolatry of the ancients 
increased, peculiar is the fact that they advanced in culture. It 
is natural to suppose that as men developed intellectually, re- 
ligion, the arts and sciences would progress together, the one 
affecting the other for the better. Possibly again our modern 
theorizers have for this very reason overlooked a distinction be- 
tween natural and revealed religion, in order to harmonize them- 
selves with evolution. It is evident, however, that the spiritual 
atmosphere of the extreme ancients was clearer, wherein they 
still adhered to the revelation of God as handed down from the 
first parents of the human race, and not because of the efforts 
of their own reasoning powers, which were little cultivated. 


“Reference to a primitive religious instinct in mankind,” says 
Max Mueller, (Chips etc. vol. 1, p. 372), “is not satisfactory ; for 
though there must have been such an instinctive sentiment in 
the earliest men as the basis of their future idolatries, it could 
only have impressed on them the existence of some Divine Be- 
ing, but in no degree involved the conception of that Being as 
one and one only, but, as all history proves, tended to the very 
opposite. Nor can it be said that the Hebrew worked out the 
great truth by a profound philosophy, for no contrast could be 


38 Shall Jesus Find Faith on Earth? 


greater between the Jewish mind and that of other nations of 
antiquity sprung from a different stock, than the utter absence 
from it of the metaphysical speculation in which other races de- 
lighted. 

“Yet, while all nations over the earth have developed a re- 
ligious tendency which acknowledged a higher than human power 
in the universe, Israel is the cnly one which has risen to the 
grandeur of conceiving this power as the One, Only, Living God. 
If we are asked how it was that Abraham possessed not only the 
primitive conception of divinity, as He had revealed Himself to 
all mankind, but passed, through the denial of all other gods, to 
the knowledge of the One God, we are content to answer that it 
was by a special divine revelation.” Thus God, like the sun, can 
be seen only by His own light. The first chapter of Genesis in 
itself, stamps the canon, which it opens with the seal of inspira- 
tion. 

This proves the pivotal difference between Israel and the Gen- 
tiles, according to the Prophecy of Isaiah, (43 :9-12), as presented 
in “The Expositor,” (1916, p. 517), wherein he pictures a dramat- 
ic “scene in the court of the universe. Nations of people are as- 
sembled. ‘They are challenged to prove the divinity of their 
gods, whether they can foretell the future as they claim. Silence 
reigns. As there is no answer, Jehovah turns to the Israelites 
and calls upon them to testify to His power to foretell the future 
and to deliver His worshippers. That is the real mission of 
Israel, the reason they were chosen in Abraham out of Ur in the 
Chaldees, from among the nations, to be witnesses to the whole 
world of the power and goodness of Jehovah, and to declare that 
He is the Supreme Ruler of the universe.” 

And no wonder there was silence in the court of the universe, 
for all other religions had become obscured by the introduction of 
a multiplicity of. idols, and far more so as they increased in 
worldly knowledge. Their reasoning became so mixed with 
priestcraft and mysticism that even nature could not be ap- 
proached by common sense. 


Shall Jesus Find Faith on Earth? 39 


The same can be said concerning their development of the arts 
and sciences. In some way or another these are connected with 
all the powers and faculties of the human mind, which perhaps 
reached their zenith in the Egyptians, Greeks and Romans, the 
last named however, were only imitators of the former, except- 
ing in warfare, wherein they excelled. As they advanced in one 
direction, they receded in the most important, for all their culture 
was entangled with their rites and ceremonies. 


Polio R IMEC Ee PRACTICE, OR ART.= “lhe table 
of Vulcan and his wife, of his forging thunderbolts for his fa- 
ther Jove, was in all probability based on the ingenuity of a 
smith who forged the best swords and designed the most artistic 
shields, and received in return the hand of the most beauti- 
ful lady in the land. It is in this way that the mind stamped it- 
self on the pyramids, monoliths, obelisks, shrines, temples and 
the arena, mostly modeling their images of the gods and godesses 
according to their description of them in the Iliad. It is thus that 
the arts were refined, and several of them reached perhaps their 
highest point of perfection. The architecture and sculpture of 
‘that day have never been surpassed, if equalled; it was the reign 
of taste and genius. 


CHAPTER VI. 


5) DID PRIMITIVE RELIGION THEN EXERT AN IM- 
PROVING INFLUENCE ON THE LIFE OF THE INDI- 
VIDUAL? 


With the former dark picture before us, where depressive 
clouds hover low upon the individual heart and life, nothing could 
be applied as a corrective directly or indirectly that would check 
the depraved energy of passion and appetite. There was no im- 
proving influence, for there was nothing to give it impetus. Their 
culture only brought to mind every conceivable form of imagina- 
tion, which naturally resulted even in the denial of the doctrine of 
immortality, once universally held, which finally was ridiculed by 
the sages of Greece and Rome. To this Pliny added that “all 
men are in the same condition after their last day as before their 
first; nor have they any more sense either in the body or soul 
after they are dead than before they were born.” 


Underneath all this corruption however, and although their 
culture was but an imperfect guide and impotent tutor, yet God, 
though imperceptible, still yearned to be their God, for whom 
He had a divine purpose, in that He awakened in them the noble 
faculty of reason, inspired them to wonderful works of art, and 
by deeds of heroism and genius caused them to be the educators 
of the world. 


Opposed then to the position of primitive credulity and the in- 
teresting defense of evolutionistic ethnologists, the Apostle Paul, 
(Rom. 1:18-32), in the words of J. Oswald Dykes, is very ex- 
plicit in his indictment: “St. Paul’s first proposition is, that from 
the first the heathen knew enough of God from His works to 
render them without excuse for not worshipping Him. Secondly, 
he declares that the heathen have hindered from its just in- 
fluence the truth which they did know respecting God. He traces 
polytheistic and idolatrous worship to its root. Its first origin he 


finds in a refusal to walk honestly by such light as nature 
40 


Shall Jesus Find Faith on Earth? 41 


afforded. For this primary step in the very old and very fatal 
path of religious declension men could excuse themselves under 
no plea of ignorance. The next step followed surely. That truth 
about God’s real nature and properties, which men would not 
strive fairly to express in their worship, became obscured. Van- 
ity and errors entered into human reasonings on religion. ‘Men 
became vain in their reasonings, and their senseless heart was 
darkened.’ The third step downward was practical folly in re- 
ligion. Nature worship involved symbol worship. Symbol wor- 
ship rapidly degenerated into sheer idol worship. 


“Tt is in this deplorable and criminal perversion of the truth, 
this religious apostasy, that Paul finds a key to the personal and 
social vices of heathendom. When the human heart shut out the 
self-manifestation of the true God, refused to know Him, and 
worshipped base creatures in His room, it cut itself off by its own 
act from the source of moral light and moral strength. A bad 
and false religion must breed a bad and false character. It ought 
never to be forgotten that heathenism is not simply a misfortune 
in the world for which the bulk of men are to be pitied but not 
blamed. It is a crime, a huge, next to world-wide, age-long 
crime, with its roots in a deep hatred of God, and bearing a pro- 
lific crop of utterly inexcusable and hideous vices. To prove this 
is the end for which the passage is introduced by St. Paul.” 


Primitive credulity in its search after truth may be commend- 
able as far as it reaches, but Christian experience proves that no 
one by searching ever found out God. Truth and God are one. 
It can come from no other source. It must be revealed. Modern 
speculators and theorizers with their evolutionistic tendency ac- 
cording to the method of ultra rationalistic criticism along the 
lines adopted in recent years, if they would acknowledge after a 
most destructive world war, which resulted as the consequence 
of such reasoning, the proofs and authorities quoted in honest 
research, facing the Truth as it is revealed, must change their 
mode of procedure under the search-light of the Bible, which once 


42 Shall Jesus Find Faith on Earth? 


again stands firmly vindicated, and bury all their former glory 
in profound obscurity. 

Our study of primitive credulity leaves much to be desired, 
recognizing with St. Augustine the profit enjoyed where a spir- 
itual God is defended; lamentable is the fact that no road of ap- 
proach is divulged. The whole system reveals no Saviour from 
sin, no hope, no life, no immortality. No voice is heard saying, 
“Come unto Me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden.” 

We notice how conversant was the Apostle on this mighty sub- 
ject, as seen in his remarkable letters to the Corinthians, and his 
address on Mars’ Hill before the Athenian philosophers, where 
he used the inscription on one of their monuments, “TO THE 
UNKNOWN GOD,” as his theme; quoting even from their own 
poets Aratus and Cleanthes and saying, “Whom therefore ye 
ignorantly worship, Him declare I unto you.” 

By rearing this altar or altars, as Jerome in his “Commentary 
on the Epistle to Titus,” (1:12), observes, “TO THE GODS OF 
ASIA, EUROPE AND AFRICA; TO THE UNKNOWN AND 
STRANGE GODS,” they certainly acknowledged their ignorance 
and need of instruction. 

Verily the time had come for a religion by revelation, even as 
it is in the Redeemer, Jesus Christ our Lord. “For after that 
in the wisdom of God the world by wisdom knew not God, it 
pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that be- 
lieve,’ (1 Cor. 1:21), concerning which the Apostle said, “I 
am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of 
God unto salvation;’ (Rom. 1:16), at a time when even the 
Gentile sages acquiesced in the judgment set upon their remark- 
able intellectualism, showing forth the extreme corruption of re- 
ligion and manners throughout the pagan world. He knew that 
the greater part of mankind had been wandering in paths which 
resembled an inextricable labyrinth, the deadly vapors of which 
extinguished the faint light that conducted their footsteps. He 
knew that the mischief of philosophy is in the fact that it is 
natural, but not spiritual. 


CHAPTER VII. 


As the position taken in the former argument has shown itself 
opposed to that of modern specialists in the science of ethnology 
upon the basis of evolution, our concluding remarks must present 
A VINDICATION OF THE REVEALED RELIGION as 
taught and exemplified in the person of Jesus Christ, which a false 
science would ignore, although it never requires an apology, 
standing as it does on a solid foundation. 


True science is not speculation, but whole truths, not hypoth- 
eses which may explain the phenomena of nature; but principles 
which do explain them and are verified by them. The Christian 
Religion is the development of faith into One Ethical Spirit as 
the Ground and Lawgiver of the universe, the Father and Re- 
deemer of mankind, as presented in the Bible through revela- 
tion. 


However, as noted, a controversy is evident, and we are told 
that the chasm is so wide that it cannot be bridged, for deism, 
atheism, rationalism, evolutionism and materialism as developed 
from scientific and philosophic research have each in turn ruled 
the minds of men as against religion. But the assertion that 
true science is at war with religion is superficial; for as revela- 
tion is from God, just so is true science in its development 
through the mind of man; for truth is never at war with truth; 
and, as science means truth as developed from nature, so religion 
means truth as revealed in God’s Word, in daily experience, and 
in the development of the soul. 


Science has widened our vision of God, by enlarging our con- 
ception of the universe, for men long believed the earth the center 
of creation. Astronomy appeared, proving that this is only one 
among myriads of worlds. As astronomy widened our concep- 
tion of space, so geology came forth to show a long succession of 
periods in which the globe was slowly formed to become the home 


of man; for long periods of time had to elapse in order to cool 
43 


+4 Shall Jesus Find Faith on Earth? 


the earth to support animal and vegetable life, proving, that “one 
day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years 
asvone day. (2; Pet: 328) 

Science has helped theology by the teaching of natural law. It 
is an axiom that the realm of nature is a kingdom of law, where 
regular order exists and where no accidents happen, even in the 
performance of miracles on the part of holy men of old, for these 
must come under the category of higher laws unknown. 

God is therefore seen as a perpetual Creator, not sitting on the 
outer rim of the universe “watching things go round”; but, liv- 
ing in all life, working without rest in and for the good of His 
creatures. Science has helped theology to see things as they are, 
and relieved the mind of man from innumerable fears, which 
oppressed him in his ignorance for ages. 

It has given him greater liberty to think, resulting in luxuries 
to his use and enjoyment, of which former generations never 
dreamed. Quick transport, a share in galleries, museums, a voice 
in the government, while his own possessions are no longer at 
the mercy of a master; and justice and protection are within 
the reach of the poorest. Add to this free education, sick, old- 
age and death benefits, and he must admit, that he is living in a 
peculiar age. And still— 

“How many lifted hands still plead 
Along life’s way. 

The old sad story of human need 
Reads on for aye.” 

However, the craving of the soul, which earthly knowledge 
cannot satisfy, is gloriously met in the Truth which came down 
from heaven, who established the faith that should transform the 
knowledge of men. Other religions are on the decline, but Chris- 
tianity, which only is worthy of the name, is progressive in re- 
vealing the wisdom of God through the Holy Spirit in His Word. 
Many questions which science could not answer are hereby made 
capable of solution according to the dispensation in which men 
have or are living. 


Shall Jesus Find Faith on Earth? 45 


Dionysius, the tyrant of Syracuse, once asked Simonides, one 
of the seven wise men of Greece, “Who, and what is God?” 
After four days deliberation, Simonides answered, “Sir, the 
longer I think upon the subject, the more I am lost in its difficulty 
and immensity.” Thus God only could answer that question, 
which He has done by saying in His Word, “In the beginning 
was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was 
God.” “I am God, and there is none else, declaring the end 
from the beginning, and from ancient times the things that are 
not yet done.” “I, (Jesus Christ) and the Father are One.” 

Thus God revealed Himself in His Son, and continues to widen 
the conceptions of men concerning Himself from age to age. 
When the Presbyterian Commission assembled in Westminster 
Abbey in 1643, numbering I21 ministers, 30 laymen, and 5 com- 
missioners from Scotland, to form a confession of faith, they too 
came upon this question, but no Scriptural answer satisfied. 
George Gillespie, the youngest delegate, was requested by the 
moderator to pray for light on the subject. He began reverent- 
ly with those words that became historical, “Thou, who art a 
Spirit, infinite and eternal, unchangeable in Thy being, wisdom, 
power, holiness, justice, goodness and truth,’—the Spirit of God 
revealed Himself through prayer. Verily, “the secret things 
belong unto the Lord our God; but those things which are re- 
vealed, belong unto us and our children forever, that we may do 
all the words of this law.” 

What effect then has this revelation upon science in general? 
Religion is the cause and science the effect of the progress of 
humanity. An era of stagnation befell the Church as well as na- 
tions after the Nicene Council in the year 325, but a warm sum- 
mer flowed over Europe with the Reformation in 1517, and not 
only was there a revival of religion, but the renewed faith created 
a renaissance in art, in literature and science throughout the 
world. Freedom in religion gained liberty for thought wherever 
it penetrated, applying the principle of truth to human needs 
and wants. | 


46 Shall Jesus Find Faith on Earth? 


Thus the great discoveries have gone into human life, former- 
ly enjoyed by the few, enhancing the value of every living soul. 
Take away this faith in the worth of man, substitute for it the 
Darwinian theory, make the strong stronger, and let the inferior 
class die out, and we lose one of the mightiest motives of human 
progress. The evidence for evolution therefore, even in its mild- 
est form, can in no way be compared to the value of the results 
of revelation. Truly Cowper mused: 

“Knowledge and wisdom, far from being one, 
Have ofttimes no connection. Knowledge dwells 


In heads replete with thoughts of other men; 
Wisdom in minds attentive to their own.” 


Science then, as science, knows nothing of God, revelation or 
immortality. Just so, religion as religion, knows nothing of 
scientific discovery or natural law. Yet the one cannot be with- 
out the other. Cause and effect are inseparable. In fact the 
great temple of the universe has two orchestras, revelation and 
science. The first has her musical instruments all strung, ready 
for a burst of eternal accord. Science is only stringing her in- 
struments. 


Some glad day, very soon, when the promise of the coming 
of the Dayspring from on high is fulfilled, when as Lord of lords 
and King of kings He shall blend heaven and earth in one har- 
monious whole, then the orchestra of revelation, and the orchestra 
of science will respond to each other in celestial wisdom and 
knowledge, and into one wreath shall be twined the Rose of 
Sharon and the Laurel of Scholarly Achievement, and the roar 
of the ocean will be the magnificent bass of the temple wor- 
shipers, of which earth itself will be the pedals of the great organ, 
and heaven the keyboard. 

“The age grows old; triumphant wrong 
Stripped of its mask stands full disclosed; 

Embittered, stung with shame, yet strong, 
Vows vengence dire on all opposed, 


While truckling half-hearts grasp its hand, 
And softly modulate their tone, 


Shall Jesus Find Faith on Earth? 47 


With shrewd exeuse inactive stand, 

And make that deadly cause their own. 
O ye few true-hearts, sad for you, 

Were there no succor ye could gain, 
Alone you would be quenched as tow, 

Your hope is, “He shall come again. 


He comes to raise up righteousness, 

And, justice fallen in the street; 
He comes the weak and poor to bless, 

And raise the fallen, to their feet. 
He comes to raise death’s captives up, 

He comes to take His purchased throne, 
He comes to raise earth’s buried hope, 

And wear His resurrection crown. 
He comes the usurper self to slay 

And give to love the imperial seat, 
To bring earth’s resurrection day, 

And make His people’s joy complete.” 


SHALL JESUS FIND FAITH ON EARTH? 
Il. 
ACCORDING TO 
ANCIENT PHILOSOPHY; 


or, 


THE SCHOOLS OF GREECE; THEIR INFLUENCE 
THEN AND NOW 


CHAPTER VIII. 


Philosophy has been called the science of general principles, 
or, the development of the conception of life according to natural 
and moral laws. The impotence of many so-called philosophers 
lies in their indifference to the general principles of life; as men 
live; life here, now, and in a world of real and perplexed and 
suffering men and women. Not so with those early sages, who 
with their knowledge of the forces of life have passed into his- 
tory, and are still in this remote age teaching the world. 


Greek philosophy began with speculations on the natural laws 
of the world, the form, origin and primal elements of the uni- 
verse, which in the sixth century however turned to reflection 
or analysis of human striving and acting, the highest good, and 
the ideal of a perfect moral life. This briefly sums up the whole 
trend of philosophical thought in ancient Greece, which will be 
closely followed in our dissertation. 

- To know the philosophy of a nation means to know how it 
answers the main questions about life. Its answers are found 
in its history, its literature, its business standards of honor and 
taste, its courts of political institutions, its conceptions of ideal 
personality, its energy, resources and will power. In every age 
the more extensively men have been moved by their ideals, the 
clearer they have reasoned, and thus society and the participating 
individual have reached the desired ends foreseen by enlightened 


persons. 
48 


Shall Jesus Find Faith on Earth? 49 


Ideals mark the goal of progressive movement. If human life 
can be conceived as devoid of ideals, progress cannot be as- 
serted. There could be no progress; only a material existence 
would be the lot of man. The brute animal has no ideals. Its 
round of activities is pursued in the same limited area, and in 
precisely the same way its ancestors followed for centuries. 


Man, with his ideals toward which he is ever moving, has illimit- 
able areas of activity, is ever increasing his activity to be, to do, 
and to develop a sensitiveness and receptivity toward ever higher 
ideals, that is, if he lives true to his ideals that in his present 
stage of life are moving him. If he belittles them, or crushes 
them out, or is devoid of them, he is steadily deteriorating and 
tending toward the mere animal, which knows only existence but 
not life. It is because of this that the whole system of realistic 
or materialistic philosophy of so many minds, tends toward the 
final conclusion reached by the dying Frenchman, who exclaimed, 
“Behold, I die, without having lived.” 


No mere animal has been known to reveal religious aspiration. 
It is without the constructive force of religion; nor is it con- 
scious of any need of it. Man, however, is the subject of the 
action and inter-action of spiritual forces that ‘take possession of 
him and continuously shape for the better his purposes and im- 
part ideals. 


Whatever the ideals may be, for economic justice affecting the 
industrial field; social service, to help the needy; truth in art; 
peace among nations; pursuit of truth; growth in spiritual char- 
acter and worth; all are so many expressions of the life of God 
in men, working out through various channels. In so far as man 
is conscious of these ideals as springing forth from the life of 
God and imparting a moral and spiritual impetus to his activities, 
is he essentially a religious being. 


Here is the source of incentive to high endeavor and better 
living, the development of ideals that become realized in human 
experience and thereby lift the plane of social life the higher, as 


50 Shall Jesus Find Faith on Earth? 


well as that of every individual who is conscious to any degree 
of participation. 

This is true of every age, and particularly of the ancient 
Greeks, at least in their schools, and that from a peculiar instinc- 
tive religious and intellectual standpoint, according to natural 
phenomena, although we cannot harmonize their position upon 
this subject with their formalism in temple worship and gross 
idolatry, wherein perhaps they reached the zenith of corruption 
in a stupendous system of mythology. This would indeed be a 
paradox beyond all comprehension were it not for a divine pur- 
pose in the development of the minds of men throughout all ages 
in every department of education, morally and intellectually. 


“Philosophy consists not 

In airy schemes, or idle speculations: 

The rule and conduct of all social life 

‘Is her great province. Not in lonely cells 
Obscure she lurks, but holds her heavenly light 
To senators and to kings, to guide their councils, 
And teach them to reform and bless mankind.” 

Thus the Greek word for ‘ethics,’ originally meaning some- 
thing rooted or grounded, was used by Aristotle as well as by 
Homer: and Hesidodus as a residence or home, in contrast with 
the general Attic usage of it as the natural character or faculties 
of a man. The philosopher first used it as that which remains 
seated or grounded morally, becoming thereby the norm and rule 
in the experience of practical life, whilst other things have floated 
away with the tide of time. 

Philosophically then, ethics means a building upon the natural 
ground or foundation of man, the development of humanity, the 
relationship of man toward his fellows; whilst on the other hand, 
the conception of ‘Christian ethics’ is supernaturalistic, dealing 
with sonship, or the relationship and resemblance to the Divine, 
developing man from his moral consciousness as it is influenced by | 
revelation, which is far nobler, and inconceivable by the natural 
mind of man. 

So far nevertheless, we have seen that Greek philosophy in the 


Shall Jesus Find Faith on Earth? 51 


course of its history now narrowing and again enlarging in its 
scope, has stood for the investigation, formation, explanation and 
interpretation of the entire universe, the world of things and 
minds in their relations, and the sort of life best adapted for the 
welfare of the human race. 

It is an attempt to deal with the whole experience of life, 
willing to consider conclusions in the light of new evidence and 
fresh facts, and, in contrast with the sciences, which do not always 
face the facts, it is the only department of human knowledge 
which questions in part and as a whole the resulting experience 
as to cause and effect, the meaning and the value of life prin- 
ciples. 


“Serene philosophy, 
Effusive source of evidence and truth! 
Without thee what were unlighten’d man! 
A savage roaring through the woods and wilds, 
Rough clad, devoid of every finer art 
And elegance of life.” (Thomson). 


CHAPTER IX. 


1) THE DEVELOPMENT: OF FAGAN, PHILCOSOR on. 
PRIOR TO THE BIRTH OF JESUS CHRIST OURO: 


The literature of Greece is by general consent the most re- 
markable in existence. Though perhaps surpassed in extent and 
variety by the literature of one or two modern nations, yet in 
view of its originality, its perfection of form, humanly speaking, 
and its prodigious influence as the source and model of all sub- 
sequent works, its claim to first place can scarcely be questioned. 


There are five distinguishable periods in the literature of the 
Greeks, which portray the development of philosophy prior to 
the birth of Jesus Christ: The Epic and Lyric period, from the 
earliest times, to the Persian wars; the period of Attic perfec- 
tion, to the time of Alexander the Great; the Alexandrian period, 
to the Roman conquest of Greece; the Roman period, to the 
reign of Constantine; and the Byzantine period, to the capture of 
Constantinople by the Turks. The later works of this mass of 
material have lifted their philosophy from a mere collection of 
writings to a sharp historical criticism, and a purer, deeper 
philosophical understanding. 

The periods of the development of Greek philosophy within 
the given periods of their literature, though a more difficult 
task, may be divided and treated as follows: 


a) The awakening of the philosophical spirit is seen in the ex- 
press tendency of speculation upon the nature of the world, from 
Thales to Anaxagoras, (640-428, B. C.), and the Atomists. The 
form of philosophy in this period tended toward a reflection 
upon evidences as such, termed cosmological speculation, yet not 
without some mathematical and dialectic or logical foundation. 

It is accepted by most critics that Thales of Miletus, (640-546 
B. C.), the founder of the Ionic school, himself held that’ all 
things were developed by God from water and to which every- 


thing returned. Although Thales is considered the first Greek 
52 


Shall Jesus Find Faith on Earth? 53 


philosopher, it cannot be said that he was the first to present 
this conception, if the supposition be allowed that the Attics 
early sent the wisest of their men into Egypt and other parts 
of the East, to observe their laws, and on their returning, incor- 
porated a part of the Mosaic writings into their own, early giv- 
ing the idea, somewhat according to the creation story, that the 
earth came up out of water. ; 

Others contend that Cicero’s citations were somewhat cor- 
rupted and therefore not clear, claiming that Thales actually de- 
sired to convey, and the possibility of his being of Phoenicean 
extraction, in harmony with the accepted development and his- 
tory of mythology from Phoenicia, which knew nothing of the 
formation of the world by an intelligent mind until later Anaxa- 
goras conceived it, that he supposed the divine substance to be 
the ether which envelops the universe, the fountain of life to all 
beings; the sun, moon and stars being filled with this ethereal 
substance therefore are gods, and that the souls of men are 
particles thereof. This conception naturally is in harmony with 
the foundation laid for polytheism, or a multiplicity of gods. 

It was Anaxagoras, (500-428 B. C.), the teacher of Pericles, 
Socrates and Euripides, who first asserted that an infinite mind, 
separated from matter, first planned, and then put in form and 
motion, out of the chaos of nature, all things in the universe, 
holding that all matter is eternal; but he did not adhere to this 
principle in accounting for the phenomena of nature, which he 
ascribed to material causes. 

Upon these hypotheses, though there are minor ones between, 
there followed a system of philosophy which attempted to ac- 
count for all material existence in the universe as constituted of 
minute particles, or atoms. The atomists as centered in Leucip- 
pus and Democritus about the year 430 B. C., explained all things 
as due to the ceaseless movement of atoms differing in shape, 
order and position. Democritus held that even the soul of man 
consists of the finest, roundest, smoothest particles. 

They taught their many followers the theory, more in vogue 


54 Shall Jesus Find Faith on Earth? 


today than even then, for is not this the foundation of the de- 
structive system of materialistic evolution’—that there was an 
innumerable company of these particles, flying and roving about 
in a void space, at length hitched together and united; by which 
union they at length grew into this beautiful, curious, and most 
exact structure of the universe. That the universe and the souls 
in it were formed by a fortuitous concourse of atoms is no more 
possible than that the accidental jumbling of the alphabet would 
fall into a most ingenious treatise on philosophy. However, 
there is here seen the far reaching effect of the awakening period 
of philosophy. 

b) In the second, or blossoming period, we notice that philo- 
sophical thought is focussed upon man, as a thinking, moral be- 
ing; the gradual development of moral philosophy and the science 
of logic; although here is recognized a partial return to the teach- 
ing of the first period, a mixture of natural and moral philos- 
ophy. Public teaching in the form of open discussion is here 
early evidenced through known application of dialectic forms, 
that is, the determination of truth and error by a process of 
analysis, a characteristic expression of ideals: from the Sophists 
to the Stoics, Epicureans and Skeptics. 

About the fifth century, B. C., attention turned from the crude 
cosmological speculations of the past, thus preparing the way 
for Socrates and his successors. The relativity of knowledge 
here led to the philosophical position of subjective idealism, which 
practice, though commendable for its persuasion in matters of 
opinion with the sincere search and sound establishing of the 
truth, soon degenerated into political and social corruption. 
Aside from this conclusion, the fact nevertheless stands that this 
is the period of that higher philosophy, which treats of the in- 
tellectual and moral constitution of man, of the foundation of 
knowledge, of duty, of perfection and relationship toward God. 
It is the period wherein the analytical mind achieves its fullest 
capacity in logical thought, but also one wherein its limits are 
evident, being finite and therefore unable to fathom the Absolute. 


Shall Jesus Find Faith on Earth? 30 


c) The blossom develops into fruit. There follows a period 
that was completely pantheistic, the principles of which were 
matter and force, with God as the dynamic power of the uni- 
verse. Even the soul of man was considered material, as part of 
the etherealized substance of which all things were made, and 
therefore subject to dissolution. The philosophers of this school 
held that sense and sense-perception were the foundation of all 
knowledge. As all things were divinely and wisely planned, it 
behooved the created to submit in all things, the agreement of 
human conduct with nature. It is only in this wise, they claimed, 
that man can achieve virtue and prove himself what he ought to 
be according to the pattern of God as set forth in their concep- 
tion of Him in the character of Zeus. Philosophy rose to its 
highest level through the Stoics at a time when the Greek mind 
was on the decline. 

An extreme doctrine now sets in with Epicureanism, wherein 
the chief end of man is taught to be pleasure and happiness, 
as found in self-restraint and right living according to conscience 
and the natural principles of life. A misunderstanding of this 
philosophy however led many into excess and riot, which soon 
brought the whole system into discredit. However, from this 
circumstance the many followers of Epicurus were called “the 
philosophers of the garden of selfishness and pleasure.” How 
natural this is for many since, who, of the world only, believe 
in this type of a religion, and make the teaching of its principles 
their standard of morals. More by far “belong to the phil- 
osophers of the garden of carnal selfishness and pleasure than to 
the garden of Gethsemane.” It is extreme materialism. Epicu- 
reanism can only mean, the corruption of morals. 

While the method and conclusions of all the schools were 
essentially skeptical, yet the actual skeptics were the Pyrrhonists. 
Their teaching was chiefly based upon the doctrine of the rela- 
tivity of knowledge, upon which they proceeded to deny that 
any thing is in its own nature honest or dishonest, good or evil, 
but only by virtue of the laws and customs which have obtained 


56 Shall Jesus Find Faith on Earth? 


among men; which corrupt system has also proven a mistaken 
foundation for the proper regulation of the morals of mankind. 

d) As seen, the fruit of the tree of philosophy never comes to 
maturity, because it is worm-eaten at the root. The decline now 
sets in. This period is remarkable for its philosophical medita- 
tions on the being of God, and the relationship of man and the 
world toward Him, including the development of physics, ethics 
in general and logic, from the time of the new pythagorism until 
the entrance of the neoplatonic school: all very admirable, but, 
there is also evident the submersion of the mystic in the Abso- 
lute, when finally the Hellenistic method of reasoning melts into 
oriental theosophy through orientalized Greeks, Jews and Egyp- 
tians. 

The loss of the systematic understanding of the character of 
Greek philosophy, because of the general weakening of the once 
peculiar strength of the Greek mind, through the spreading in- 
termixture of oriental influences throughout the then known 
world, is indeed deplorable beyond expression. The real cause 
of this collapse is the evident weakness of both, their religion 
and philosophy, neither of which at any time could be thoroughly 
united, an experiment tried very early by Xenophanes and 
Parmenides among the Eleates by the incorporation of Hindoo 
theosophy, and the acceptance on the part of Pythagoras of many 
Chinese doctrines, which however proved to belong to the realm 
of phantasy and not to reason. 

Summarizing their philosophy and religion from this gen- 
eral survey it is easily recognized that all their reasoning was so 
mixed with priestcraft that no premise could be approached un- 
hindered by common sense, which is the fate of all philosophy 
ancient and modern. Fable and tradition have always hindered 
the march of reason and truth, and where philosophy differs with 
revelation it can make no public advance. 

Dr. F. W. Gunsaulus in his reply to R. G. Ingersoll, said, “‘it 
was when it was at its supreme strength, and when Christianity 
was a babe in a manger, that anti-Christianity had a chance to 


Shall Jesus Find Faith on Earth? oy? 


show its ‘beauty.’ You say that it was not what skepticism is at 
the present day, and I acknowledge that it is so. Why? Be- 
cause nineteen centuries have rolled like waves of light between, 
and Christ has improved it in spite of itself. Never had the 
world so good a chance to see what absolute skepticism and un- 
belief could do and would do for the liberty of the human soul 
as then.” 


Pap ILE UN EOENGH OR THE -VOUARIES OF - GREEK 
Po LOSORAY: 


Pythagoras of Samos was the first to modestly call himself a 
philosopher, in the sense of a friend of wisdom. He declared the 
purpose of philosophy to be the observation and investigation of 
nature, out of which is developed the fact that it is independent 
of all material influences and is therefore dynamic in its own 
laws. 

This conception of nature in a general sense was early taught 
by the Greek schools, and even previous to these by the cultured 
nations of Asia, but its assertion carries little if anything specif- 
ically philosophical. But, if the investigation or reasoning here 
be used intensively, then the more or less poetic observation of 
nature as early noticed among the Greeks and Orientals must be 
excluded, and there steps in a searching and questioning as to 
FROM WHAT, BY WHAT MEANS, and HOW, WHAT WE 
Bier ens COME IN TOME XLS PENCE WHAT ASSIS 
SIGNIFICANCE? When in the riddle of nature man finds it 
in order to solve the problem, searches for a point of view, a 
principle from which he can observe the singular, combines the 
same into thought, he is in a position to give an explanation for 
the same. 

This position was early taken by Thales of Miletus, a con- 
temporary of Solon, who, as has been noted, conceived the 
primeval cause of all things to be water, because he so reasoned 
that the seed and nourishment of all things is dependent on 
moisture, and as warmth is here developed from the same source, 


58 Shall Jesus Find Faith on Earth? 


the effect is that all things are compactly held together; where- 
as, he claimed, the inflexible objects are lifeless. 

It is at this point that Aristotle begins his history of phil- 
osophy, declaring that after Thales, Anaximenes conceived the 
idea that the element or foundation of nature is air or ether, 
that our souls are atmospheric because all life is dependent 
on breathing, and the world is enveloped in ether. It is thus out 
of the condensing of air that he explains the phenomena of rain, 
snow and earthquakes; the vari-colored rainbow he explains as 
the sun’s rays falling across the condensing air or cloud. 

The modern exponent of this theory is the British scientist, 
Sir Oliver Lodge, who recently declared that “ether is greater 
than matter, and this will be an accepted scientific fact within 
the next ten or fifteen years. But the ether of space is a sub- 
stantial reality, with extraordinarily perfect properties, with 
enormous energy, a constitution which we must discover, and a 
substantiality more impressive than that of matter, for matter is 
made of ether.” 

As novel as all these speculations may appear, there is how- 
ever to be noticed the philosophical mind proceeding from a 
certain principle or premise, dependent thereon, and binding 
every observation. Greek philosophy therefore begins with this 
purpose, to explain, dependent on the said principle, the mani- 
foldness of the bodies and phenomena. 

Certainly already here is seen the veiled question of a first 
cause, a Being Absolute, the Creator of all things. The attempt 
which here underlies this unexpressed supposition of a unity 
within a multiplicity of things, within illimitable and manifold 
phenomena, testifies to a true and deep reasoning power. 

An experiment proceeding from this supposition, eventually 
led to a deeper and wider exploration of nature, which, as these 
inquiries developed in their totality, became the first part of 
philosophy, called physics by the Greeks, which now with us, 
excepting in a much wider sense, belongs to natural science. 

Aristotle is clear here with the fact that physics first went out 


Shall Jesus Find Faith on Earth? 59 


from geology, which comprised not only what we now under- 
stand by that term, but to it also belonged physiology, mineralogy, 
botany, zoology, astronomy and mathematics; this last science 
however, Pythagoras lifted to an integral element in philosophy. 
Even Greek theology formed a part in their physics, for, their 
knowledge of the gods came from their observation of nature 
and thus the soul of the world and the firmament was taken to 
mean so many different systems of divinity. 

Long previous to the conclusion of this first part through 
Plato and Aristotle, there is seen the beginning of the second 
epoch of Greek philosophy, namely the Dialectic, particularly de- 
veloped by the Sophists. Dialectics first meant the art of dis- 
putation, in which the Athenians became adepts with much pride: 
this art then led to the proper use of the laws of language, gram- 
mar and logic, to which was added metaphysics in its dealing 
with the principles of human knowledge, rhetoric and poetry. 

Greek philosophy in its influence upon its votaries raises it- 
self in its third main division exclusively to an ethical platform, 
which comprised not only what we now understand by morals, 
but in a sensible way included politics, or the science of arrange- 
ment, administration and government of the State, because in 
the State ethics first came to its peculiar development. 

The father of this new departure was Socrates, whose inspired 
wisdom made the nearest approach to the divine morality of the 
Gospel, thus making him the most original of all the philosophers. 
Declining to be initiated into the mysteries of the religion of the 
Greeks, he was regarded as the representative of a widespread 
rationalistic movement; yet he referred the people to the oracles 
in matters of religion, recommended divination, and advised the 
worship of the gods according to the laws of the country. 

Socrates endeavored by his moral sayings to engage those he 
conversed with not only to abstain from things impure, unjust 
and base when they were seen of men, but even when they were 
in solitude, as being persuaded that none of their actions can be 
concealed from the gods. In many of his teachings we notice 


60 Shall Jesus Find Faith on Earth? 


that he uses the term ‘God’ instead of a plurality of gods, as on 
occasion he tried to bring men to a right sense of God and 
Providence and the honorable and just worship due to the Divin- 
ity, as the first and most universal law of nature. Naturally in 
his conception of the Divine Being, calling him Zeus or by any 
other name, he of necessity remained indefinite. 

Also his discourses on the immortality of the soul and a future 
life or state of happiness were entirely new to the pagan mind, 
which teaching he often represents as of greatest importance to 
the cause of virtue, and confines its understanding principally to 
those who had made much progress in wisdom. None of his 
disciples, except Plato, dared deal with so sublime a doctrine; 
here Socrates outreached them all, and in this he planted the 
zenith of all moral philosophy. 

Thus with the Greeks everything worthy of human thought 
and research belonged to philosophy; but, in order to know how, 
and by what means the votaries of these great minds and systems 
were influenced and carried forward their ideas and ideals, it is 
necessary to understand their method of reasoning. In order to 
appreciate their contribution to the world of knowledge a few in- 
timations in reference to the fundamental principle or idea of 
philosophy may suffice. 

It is impossible in a single sentence to set forth what it means 
to think. The shortest and best answer may be learned by the 
science of logic, wherein we come to know what a conception 
or an idea really is, form a right judgment and conclusion, then 
only in the sense of philosophy can a proper understanding be 
reached. Philosophy demands a true and intensive course of 
thought; but, not all thinking may be termed philosophy. Think- 
ing, in its broadest sense is that peculiar activity of the human 
mind which is as involuntarily and unconsciously performed as 
seeing, hearing and breathing. Right thinking has been defined 
as the spiritual respiration of the mind, which is as necessary to 
it as the regular usage of the nostrils for the working of the 
lungs. 


Shall Jesus Find Faith on Earth? 61 


Every rational human being begins to think from the time when 
consciousness appears until it disappears. Minds of men, how- 
ever, are differentiated according to the nature and method of 
thought, right or wrong, clear or not clear, good or evil, great 
or small ideas; setting them apart from other creatures. In 
order then that this broad and seemingly unlimited idea be under- 
stood, it is necessary to remind ourselves of the main functions 
and expressions exercised every moment by the mind. All 
reasoning exhibits itself therein :—1) When we take an impression 
on the sensitive plate of the mind, either by hearing or learning; 
2) When we give something of ourselves, or communicate or 
teach others; and, 3) Between these preceding two functions, 
there is the possession of something which is characterized “to 
know,” or knowledge which is relative. All this has reference to 
general reasoning. 

But, over and above this general and natural method of reason- 
ing, which is practiced involuntarily and somewhat unconscious- 
ly, there is possible nevertheless, a voluntary, conscious, de- 
termined and often strained method, yet ordered and systematic, 
which proceeds as already cited, from a given principle or prem- 
ise, to which it is relative, and then binds all the different 
observations with that leading thought. The difference is simply 
this, that while general thinking is directed mainly toward out- 
ward appearances, the philosophical mind takes hold on what 1s 
within a given object, which with the senses alone cannot be 
perceived. 

This inward, discernable essence of a thing is then the con- 
ception or the idea of the thing conveyed to the mind. The idea 
is the discerned thing. To seek this and to proceed in the opera- 
tion of intensive concentration, is reasoning, in a narrowing, 
focussing sense, which then becomes synonymous with phil- 
osophizing. Again, philosophical reasoning is differentiated from 
general thinking in that it is directed toward itself and making it- 
self the object of action; in reality it is a reasoning upon reason, 
even as philosophy was thus strikingly defined by the ancient 


62 Shall Jesus Find Faith on Earth? 


sages, which therefore makes it the highest grade of accomplish- 
ment, the termination of all thought, the first of all the sciences, 
without which all science would be impossible. 

Thus the object-matter of philosophy may be distinguished as 
pertaining to God, or nature, or man. Underlying all inquiries 
into any of these departments, there is a so-called first phil- 
osophy, which seeks to ascertain the grounds or principles of 
knowledge and the causes of all things. Hence all philosophy has 
been defined to be the science of causes and principles. It is the 
investigation of those principles on which all knowledge and all 
being ultimately rest. 

Upon this basis Socrates claimed that the true philosopher 
must make clear, according to the laws of logic, what is the ulti- 
mate end of striving, or, what is the highest good, and be able to 
give a definition to the meaning of these predicates so that men 
may become familiar with them and regulate their characters 
from the foundation of such principles. He asserted, in which 
assertion Plato, Aristotle, the Stoics and Epicureans all con- 
curred, that there is no virtue without knowledge, in fact that 
virtue is a form of reason, that only such as possessed true knowl- 
edge and therefore virtue, were capable of governing the State, 
that either kings must become wise men, or wise men kings. He 
declared that it is only when men in this way come to know 
themselves that they can reach perfection, when they learn to 
put into practice the three cardinal virtues of wisdom, courage 
and self-control, that they can achieve justice, happiness and 
perfection as natural beings in this life, thereby establishing the 
fact that they are the handiwork of an all-wise and beneficent 
Creator. 

Plato here naturally and in accord with his master proceeded 
to establish the principle of an “Idea of the Good,” claiming 
this as the ultimate goal of our intellectual endeavor, which is 
revealed as we follow the argument whithersoever it leads, ulti- 
mately coming back to ourselves. He thus defines the intel- 
lectual soul as having been created by an intellectual God, as 


Shall Jesus Find Faith on Earth? 63 


His highest human product, and that no State or society of men 
can exist happily or successfully unless placed in the hands of 
philosophers. 

The principles which influenced Aristotle, who, following 
Plato, became the most elaborate of the Grecian philosophers, be- 
gin with his statement that ‘every thing which moves must have 
an immovable mover, the first principle of motion, subsisting as 
a properly producing principle, and as eternally motive.” With 
this declaration it is recognized that he leaned toward the Atom- 
ists, and this, as the most popular theory, was held more or 
less by destructive criti¢s down the ages until the present, until it 
became a mania with Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche, (1844-1900), 
who applied the same to ethics with the object of developing the 
so-called “superman.” 

Ethically, Aristotle dealt as Socrates and Plato preceding him, 
with “The Highest Good,” claiming that it is a particular excel- 
lence of the soul of man, which like all organic being possesses 
sensation and desire, but that it alone can reason. As the crown 
of creation in the possession of reason, man’s peculiar function 
as a good man is virtue, the ultimate basis of knowledge and be- 
ing. | 

It is in this way that the Greek mind, through the interpreta- 
tion and influence of its votaries, ‘““met the Socratic demand for a 
science of the good. They take into account the place of man 
in the cosmos, and then attempt to define his idea, that is, his 
natural and divine purpose, and to show how he may realize this 
purpose. The conception of the perfect man which they ad- 
vance, essentially resembles the popular Greek ideal.” (Paulsen, 
“System of Ethics,” p. 53). 

tev IOUS SCHOOLS Oh CREE Kee REIL 
SSOP HY AND WHAT THEY STOOD FOR; 

The modern school claims its development from the founda- 
tion of the various systems of reflective thought of the early 
Greeks, wherein is distinguished the poetic-mythical-religious 
way of explaining the problems of the universe and the ex- 


64 Shall Jesus Find Faith on Earth? 


periences of life, and, the method which uses reason to find the 
ultimate bases of knowledge and being, which (latter) also bore 
two characteristics, namely, beauty of form in expression, and 
freedom from the conventional on the one hand, and on the 
other freedom from the superstitious and monstrous. It is of ut- 
most importance to be acquainted with the several systems 
of thought or philosophy, in order to focus the light of our gen- 
eral subject upon them. 

The philosophers belonging to the Ionic School, often desig- 
nated as the colony of Miletus, are Thales, Anaximander, An- 
aximenes and Anaxagoras. Thales of Miletus, (640-546, B. C.), 
a Greek physical philosopher, was the first to reasonably present 
and explain nature by giving attention to water, from which 
as a principle, all things emanated and to which all things re- 
turned. How this was explained cannot now be conjectured. In 
his teaching there is traceable doubtfully the recognition of a 
personal and superintending deity. He founded Greek astronomy 
and philosophy and the science of abstract geometry. Specula- 
tive reasoning is here unknown. No record of his works can 
be found excepting as he is referred to by later writers; but, 
upon the basis of philosophical knowledge he is numbered among . 
the seven wise men of Greece. Much has been falsely attributed 
to him which is merely interpolated and unauthorized matter, 
although he always will be looked upon as the first philosopher. 

Anaximander, (610-546, B. C.), a disciple of Thales, was the 
first teacher of philosophy in the public schools, giving attention 
to the infinite as the principle and element of being, distinct from 
the elements and matter as such, or better, the unbounded eternal 
indeterminate. This theory has given rise to no end of argument 
throughout the ages. He also claimed that the origin of the 
lower species of animals arose from the influence of the sun upon 
the slimy substance in the previous chaotic condition of the 
world, containing seed, whilst human beings developed from 
fish. These principles are evidently evolutionistic and similar to 
Darwinianism. 


Shall Jesus Find Faith on Earth? 65 


Anaximines, the third in the series of the Ionian philosophers, 
living a little later than Anaximander, sought to prove the in- 
finite as air, which divided is fire, and condensed—wind, then a 
cloud, then water, earth and minerals, from which other things 
are produced. Little, further than his theory, is known of him. 

Anaxagoras of Clazomenae, (500-428, B. C.), is considered 
the most illustrious philosopher of this period, and even re- 
garded as the father of modern science. He taught the eternity 
of matter and the constitution of things as resulting from the 
combination of ultimate elements under the control of a supreme 
intelligence. He came to Athens in the year 480 B.C., where 
he labored for thirty years, numbering among his pupils Pericles, 
Socrates and Euripides. He abandoned the ideas of his predecessors 
and, instead of regarding some elementary form or matter as the 
origin of things, he conceived a supreme mind or intelligence dis- 
tinct from the visible world to have imparted form and order 
to the chaos of nature. On account of this innovation he was 
indicted for his impiety. 

In the Ionic School it is noticeable that some philosophers as- 
sume prior while others adopt posterior principles; one appeals to 
reason, the other to sense, with little general difference. Reduc- 
ing these four systems of this school to a conclusion, we find the 
universal nature seeking its being, which it ultimately finds only 
in itself as matter and perhaps some intimations as to the deriva- 
tion of the elements out of primitive matter. The mind of man 
alone could penetrate no further to seek the object of its search. 

The second school of philosophy was the Eleatic, founded in 
Elea, a Greek colony on the south-western coast of Italy by 
Xenophenes of Colophon, (538-500, B. C.), who was forced to 
leave his native land on account of the Persian wars. He arose 
in opposition to the teaching of the naturalist Heraclitus of 
Ephesus, (535-475, B. C.), who, in accordance with the Ionic 
school regarded all things as resulting from a single primitive 
essence which he termed “fire,” from which all things originated 
and to which all things returned; also that the processes of 


66 Shall Jesus Find Faith on Earth? 


change are presided over by divine law or universal reason. 
Xenophenes his opponent was a traveling poet and philosopher, 
teaching the whole of nature to be God. His school became 
famous through his pupils Zeno of Elea, Melissus of Samos, and 
Parmenides, who reasoned from the principle of their master 
that the Absolute or Pure Being was the only real existence, and 
that all phenomena were unreal, in opposition to the denial of all 
being according to Heraclitus. The changeful world of the 
senses is an illusion for the Eleatics, just as the substantial world 
of the senses is an illusion for Heraclitus. Each as so often hap- 
pens had grasped a great half-truth. Plato later recognizing this, 
attempted to reconcile the ideas of being and becoming, or ab- 
solute existence and phenomena. 

The third school of philosophy was the Pythagorean, founded 
by Pythagoras, a native of Samos, born about the year 580 B. C., 
who very early received instruction in the Ionian school, but 
spent the latter part of his life in southern Italy, where he be- 
came the leader of a religious revival. Aside from Thales, he 
is considered the founder of the science of geometry, and the 
discoverer of the musical octave. He had a large following 
both because of his philosophy and his new religion of affec- 
tionate morality and piety. 

Pythagoras taught that all things came from matter and form 
in perfect harmony and symmetry, strictly mathematical; that all 
the elements, fire, air, earth and water were made up of atomic 
plane figures; in other words, that numbers from I-10 govern all 
things, as I. bound, or the infinite; 2. the odd and even; 3. one 
or many; 4. right or left; 5. male or female; 6. rest or motion; 
7. straight or curved; 8. light and darkness; 9. good or evil; 10. 
square or oblong; which together he called the ten coordinations. 
The fact which he tried to substantiate is that the whole universe 
is a mathematical problem; that all things go back to numbers, 
degrees and measurements. 

His system was later degenerated by the Pythagoreans into a 
superstitious mysticism, and particularly his recognition of the 


Shall Jesus Find Faith on Earth? 67 


immortality of the soul and of rewards and punishment after 
death into a coarse, erratic, and morally judicial evolution, that 
is, the transmigration of souls from body to body whether man 
or beast, which perhaps was adopted from the Hindoo philos- 
ophy. Pythagoras was more of a religious teacher than a philos- 
opher, for he claimed it his duty by divine commission to reveal 
a purer mode of life. 

The fourth school of philosophy was the Socratic, as founded 
by Socrates, (470-399, B. C.), who wrote nothing himself, but 
whose doctrines are preserved in the writings of Xenophon and 
Plato. Through the new method of dialectics he introduced his 
disputations, himself assuming the attitude of a learner, and 
leading his pupils from point to point, he gradually developed a 
recognition of their own ideas as true or false or until they 
involved themselves in self-contradiction or ridiculous absurdity, 
thus claiming that men must first be conscious of their ignorance 
before becoming wise. 

The central teaching of his moral philosophy, which with him 
now divorces itself from the natural or physical philosophy of the 
former schools, is identified with virtue and knowledge, holding 
that true knowledge can only be attained by a clear perception 
of what is true and good, which he conceived to be the chief end. 
In his plain and familiar manner of instruction he meddled lit- 
tle with the speculations of the philosophers about gods and the 
cosmological nature of things, yet he speaks clearly of the bless- 
ings of Providence to whom divine worship is due, but it is morti- 
fying that a person of so great understanding should send men 
to what was then called divination and the consideration of the 
oracles of the gods in order to know the Divine Will. According 
to Xenophon, he incessantly discussed human affairs in their 
relationship to righteousness, investigating—What is piety? 
What is impiety? What is the honorable and the base? What is 
the just and the unjust? Men who knew and practiced these 
principles he accounted good and honorable; men that were igno- 
rant of them he classed as slaves. 


68 Shall Jesus Find Faith on Earth? 


His theory of virtue consisted in knowledge; to do right is 
the only road to happiness; as all men seek happiness it is their 
duty to rise from ignorance to knowledge. It is thus that his 
influence affected the Grecian speculative intellectual world, never 
since paralleled. 

During the last eight years of the career of Socrates, Plato be- 
came his foremost pupil, thoroughly conversant with his system 
of dialectics and ethics. Long after the death of his master, he 
returned from a journey to other countries and at Athens began 
publicly to teach in the Academia, a beautiful enclosure or gar- 
den on the outskirts, over the entrance of which were inscribed 
the words, “NO ONE IGNORANT OF PHILOSOPHY MAY 
ENTER HERE,” and where he gathered together a large num- 
ber of distinguished followers. 

As a voluminous writer upon many and varied subjects he is 
claimed to be only the mouth-piece to hand down to posterity the 
intelligence expressed by his master. Yet Plato became a great 
social missionary and preacher of virtue. Knowledge with him 
did not mean mere speculation, but wisdom, and wisdom meant 
wise action, and wise action, virtue. The principles of his philos- 
ophy are, the Cause or Mover, Matter and Form; or, Cause and 
Matter. In many respects his teachings are similar to those of 
the school of Pythogoras and Parmenides. 

Ethically, Plato sets forth love and beauty with acute analysis. 
He made both moral instructors in order to power, so that in- 
dulgence in these instead of selfishness, is a part of one’s law- 
ful education, fitting him for a better discharge of his duties; 
and the power to do good is to be measured by the amount 
that he has in him as the result of the education which he 
has received by reason of these things. It is on this basis that 
he also claimed that human activity finds its sure foundation in 
human insight. He applied this particular principle with endless 
fertility to all departments of experience, to morality, to social 
relations, to religion, to science, and to the destiny of the in- 
dividual. 


Shall Jesus Find Faith on Earth? 69 


And perhaps often reminded of the last hours of Socrates 
while discoursing upon his departure, it is no wonder that he so 
graphically sets forth the immortality of the soul, unsurpassed by 
any pagan composition. His works were admired by the Church 
Fathers as one who came in the fulness of time and destined to 
prepare the heathen mind for the coming of the Redeemer of the 
world, for no other thinker ever exerted so much power to vivify 
and unite the select minds of the ages. 


Although Plato may be termed the foremost scholar of the 
Socratic school, Aristotle must now be looked upon as his worthy 
successor. Of all the sages of antiquity Aristotle stands forth as 
the loftiest in intellect, and his philosophy, though cold, is re- 
garded as the best adapted to the practical nature of mankind pre- 
ceding the birth of Jesus Christ. He is the genius of the minds 
of men, presenting to the world every branch of knowledge, 
dealing with natural, moral and political philosophy, history, 
rhetoric and logic. 


In all his works Aristotle observes human nature and the ex- 
ternal world, in which he never neglects the noble and the beauti- 
ful. While Plato defined an intellectual God, Aristotle claimed 
that “every thing which moves must have an immovable mover, 
the first principle of motion, subsisting as a properly producing 
principle, and as eternally motive.” As with Socrates and Plato 
before him, he mentions it as an ancient tradition that the stars 
are gods, and that the representation of gods in the forms of men 
and the lower animals was added later, and denied that Provi- 
dence extends its care to anything below the moon. His is a 
strongly pronounced dualistic philosophy; matter and form, God 
and the world are distinct though inseparable existences; God is 
an act rather than a will, a process and not a person. Though no 
human mind is perfect, be it ever so brilliant; whether true or 
false in its conclusions, it must nevertheless be allowed that the 
Aristotelian philosophy has inspired the greatest systems of phil- 


70 Shall Jesus Find Faith on Earth? 


osophy and education, remaining a vitalizing force in religion and 
metaphysics to the end of time. 

A fifth school of philosophy was Epicureanism, as taught and 
founded by Epicurus, born at Samos, 341, B. C., who assumed 
pleasure to be the highest good. In the beginning he had a very 
large following, but eventually his theory of mental pleasure be- 
came misconstrued, and never as intended. They abused his 
love of virtue for its own sake because they had not suffcient 
elevation of mind to follow him intimately and intensively. In 
the year 306, B. C., he established at Athens a garden for the 
purpose of lecturing on his system, from which circumstance his 
followers were called “the philosophers of the garden,’ which 
they turned into selfishness and pleasure. This school more than 
any other, has grown by leaps and bounds, As has been said, 
“more belong to the philosophers of the garden of selfishness and 
pleasure than to the garden of Gethsemane, of self-denial.” 
Epicureanism means extreme selfishness. 

Finally came Stoicism, which left a more marked development 
of culture upon the Greek and Roman mind than Epicureanism. 
This school was founded by Zeno of Cittium, (350-258, B. C.), a 
pupil of the Cynics, and continued after the death of Cleanthes, 
quoted by the Apostle Paul in his famous Mars’ Hill address be- 
fore the Athenian philosophers: “For in Him we live, and move, 
and have our being; as certain also of your own poets have said, 
for we are also His offspring.” (Acts 17:28). 

Stoicism became a religion with the Romans as represented in 
Epictetus, Seneca and Marcus Aurelius, for ethically, as with the 
Greeks, they sought to produce the wise man, by which they meant, 
one who should be independent of the passions and circumstances 
of life, dependent wholly upon the conception and working of con- 
science, which view later played such an important part in the 
history of ethics. This school peculiarly prepared the way for 
Christianity in the fulness of time to step upon the platform of 
religion and philosophy because of their so-called stoical de- 
pendence on the inner light, at a time when civilization was at 


Shall Jesus Find Faith on Earth? 71 


its lowest ebb. Insisting stubbornly on the independence of the 
individual from outward circumstances, and thinking themselves 
wise, they thereby proved their weakness and incapacity, which 
necessitated a new religion and a new philosophy to save the 
world from moral and spiritual ruin. 

Thus we find that the various schools which have flourished 
throughout the Grecian intellectual world, and also including 
those that followed, for all are based on these in one form or 
another, “may be divided into ‘two main classes, namely theistic 
and atheistic. The former class embraces all philosophic systems 
which assume a god of some sort as the originator and sustainer 
of the universe. It may be remarked in passing that theistic 
philosophies are more dangerous to human-kind than the atheis- 
tic class, for the reason that the former are well calculated to 
ensnare those who, by nature of training, have a repugnance to 
atheism. We need here pay no attention to atheistic philosophy 
for the reason that it is quite out of favor at the present day, 
and shows no sign of ever recovering a respectable status. 

“Confining our attention therefore to theistic philosophies, we 
find several classes of these, namely dualistic and pantheistic. 
Dualism is the name which philosophers have been pleased to 
bestow upon those systems which maintain that God, or the 
first cause, created the universe as an act of his will, and has an 
existence distinct and apart from it. These systems are called 
dualistic because they count God as one entity, and the universe 
or creation as another entity, thus making two entities. 

“Pantheism on the other hand, maintains that God and the uni- 
verse are one being. There are several varieties of pantheism 
which have many followers even among living philosophers, such 
as monism and pluralism. Monism is that variety of pantheism 
which is most in favor at the present day. This system assumes 
as the basis of reality an “absolute” or “all-knower,” a mon- 
strosity which comprehends in its vast being all things and all 
their relations and activities. Monism, therefore, asserts that 
there is but one entity. God has no existence apart from the 


72 Shall Jesus Find Faith on Earth? 


universe, and never had. ‘The latter is, therefore, eternal, and 
there has been no creation. 


“Tt is a remarkable and highly significant fact that the basic 
principle of this ruling philosophy of our day is also the basic 
principle of the rapidly rising religio-economic system of social- 
ism. For socialism is grounded upon the proposition that man is 
originally and essentially one with God and with the universe. 
From this strange agreement—this strange meeting of extremes 
—far reaching results may be expected.” (Mauro, Funda- 
mentals, vol. 4, chap. 5, p. 91-92). 

In the different positions taken then by the ancient schools 
which so peculiarly have influenced the thought of the ages, 
as evidenced by the preceding quotations, we find that all of 
them, more or less expressed principles according to their light, 
and it is possible that people were helped by them in their general 
practice. It cannot however be truthfully said, as so often as- 
serted, that the purer and noblest thoughts as expressed by them 
were merely “reasoned truth,’ for it is evident that many of 
their sages journeyed afar, and it is possible that they came in- 
to contact with other nations, particularly Israel, and from them 
and their traditions learned what had been revealed from God. 


Nor can it be claimed that any one of them set forth a com- 
plete system of moral philosophy, and many of them were hope- 
lessly wrong in principle and practice, especially where sensual 
pleasure was a common error, contradicting the very principle of 
knowledge which is virtue, according to the best of their teach- 
ing. Although the natural mind of man cannot receive the 
things of the Spirit of God, because they are spiritually dis- 
cerned, it is nevertheless evident that God most wonderfully 
endowed the Greek mind with analytical powers beyond its gen- 
eral capacity, and what it achieved or set forth through intel- 
ligence proves that He had a divine purpose through the Greek 
schools then and now. 


Shall Jesus Find Faith on Earth? TES 


Pee Ui tae AR AGE RIT OL BACH ORs DHE «GREAT 
EEADERS OF THOUGHT IN ANCIENT'ATHENS. 
“He said: ‘But who are the true philosophers?’ 
‘Those,’ I said, ‘who are lovers of the vision of truth!” 
(Plato’s Repub., Jowett, vol. 5, p. 475). 

According to Plato’s own answer there can only be three of 
these of importance, who though mortal and therefore imperfect, 
must nevertheless be regarded as peers among the characters of 
men in ancient Athens; namely, Socrates, Plato and Aristotle. 

The most celebrated philosopher, Socrates, was born in Athens 
in the year 469, B. C. His father, Sophroniscus, was a sculptor, 
which profession the son followed for some time. His physical 
constitution was very robust, enabling him to endure the hardest 
military service. As a young man he frequented the society of 
the physical philosopher Anaxagoras and his disciple Archelaus. 
He married Xanthippe, to whom three sons were born, and whose 
name is proverbial as a conjugal scold. He was prominent for 
some years in several wars and perhaps not until the year 406, 
B. C., is he seen to enter political life. Believing himself en- 
dowed with a divine mission, he claims to have heard admoni- 
tions of restraint from time to time, these perhaps referring to 
his conscience. 

Early in the morning he is known to have visited regularly the 
gymnasia, while afternoons he sought the crowds in the market 
place and always had a large following, teaching orally exclusive- 
ly, for no writings of his are in evidence, using a scrutinizing 
method of cross-examination. As characterized in Xenophon’s 
Memorabilia and Plato’s Dialogues, in which he is generally the 
interlocutor, he taught that life and teaching are inseparable, be- 
lieving that a thorough progress of society and the State de- 
pended on the education of the young, to which doctrine he ad- 
hered until the end, to the detriment of family life perhaps, be- 
cause nowhere does he seem to give much attention to women 
and children, possibly on account of a Xanthippe within his own 
household. 


74 Shall Jesus Find Faith on Earth? 


As a practical sage and moral philosopher Socrates is every- 
where depicted in glowing terms by all his biographers. Xeno- 
phon says of him that “he was so pious that he did nothing with- 
out the advice of the gods; so righteous, that he was careful 
to insult no one in the least, so lording over himself, that he 
never chose his own comfort in preference to what was right and 
good, so wise that in his decision between good and evil he never 
went wrong; the best and happiest person possible.” 

In his Symposium, Plato describes the disorderly arrival of 
Alcibiades, who is half intoxicated, but proceeds to eulogize 
Socrates in inimitable words and in the presence of his master: “I 
have heard Pericles and other great orators, but though I thought 
that they spoke well, my soul was not stirred. But this man 
brought me to such a pass that I have felt as if I hardly could 
endure the life which I am leading. He makes me confess that I 
ought not to live as I do, neglecting the wants of my soul and 
busying myself with the concerns of the Athenians. He is the 
only person who ever made me feel ashamed of myself. 

“He and I went on the expedition to Potidaea; there we messed 
together, and I had the opportunity of observing his extraordi- 
nary power of sustaining fatigue and going without food when 
our supplies were intercepted at any place, as will happen with 
any army. In the faculty of endurance he was superior, not only 
to me, but to every body; there was no one to compare with him. 

“Yet, at a festival, he was the only person who had any real 
powers of enjoyment, and, though not willing to drink, he could, 
if compelled, beat us all at that, and the most wonderful thing 
of all was that no human being had ever seen Socrates intoxi- 
cated; and that, if I am not mistaken, will soon be tested. His 
endurance of cold was also surprising. There was a severe 
frost, for the winter in that region was really tremendous, and 
every body else either remained indoors, or, if they went out, 
had no end of clothing, and were well shod, and had their feet 
swathed in felts and fleeces: in the midst of this Socrates, with 
his bare feet on the ice, and in his ordinary dress, marched bet- 


Shall Jesus Find Faith on Earth? fis 


ter than any of the other soldiers who had their shoes on, and 
they looked daggers at him because he seemed to despise them. 
He who pierces the mask and sees what is within, will find his 
words most divine, abounding in fair examples of virtue, extend- 
ing to the whole duty of a good and honorable man. This, 
friends, is my praise of Socrates.” 

This is but one instance of the high regard held for him by 
one of his pupils, yet it represents the acclaim of innumerable 
minds in every age who have looked upon him as the genius of 
moral philosophy, with a character and intellect at the head of 
his class. His fame, however, begins to wane when Aristophanes, 
in his “The Clouds” jealously and unjustly charges him with 
sophistry, and increasing numbers accuse him of impiety in not 
worshipping the gods, and for corrupting the morals of young 
men. He makes no defense expecting to be freed from the 
charge. Yet he was condemned to death. 

During thirty days in prison he conversed along the lines of 
his teachings with his loyal~and intimate friends. On the last 
day, in the year 399, B. C., he discoursed on the immortality of 
the soul, when with virtual self-immolation as the conjoint root 
of the cynic and the stoic, he drank the poison cup of hemlock, 
a species of cicuta, while his friends watched him gradually die. 
Thus perished the most original and greatest of Grecian philos- 
ophers. What a pathetic ending to that matchless pagan life! 

Next in order, Plato now steps to the platform. Desiring to 
get a correct view of his character, there is needed a shifting 
of our focus to survey aright, as his is an entirely different per- 
sonality from that of Socrates, although they possess and present 
so much in common. Born at Athens in the year 427, B. C., of 
royal blood, at twenty he began his career as a poet, but after 
eight years as a pupil of Socrates he turned his attention toward 
the teaching of philosophy. At the close of the life of his mas- 
ter, and after many and long pilgrimages to other countries, he 
was sought as a teacher by Dionysius the younger, of Syracuse, 
who desired to be a warm friend of literature and gain distinc- 


76 Shall Jesus Find Faith on Earth? 


tion by literary composition. During the revolution which fol- 
lowed his entrance upon his duties, Plato was sold as a slave, but 
soon regained his freedom, and he returned to Athens when 
about forty years of age, where he began to teach philosophy in 
the Academia, which he bought for this purpose. 

He is the foremost philosophical writer of his age. The critics 
disagree as to the genuineness of many works attributed to him. 
Authentic are declared: the Republic—with the Timaeus—the 
Laws, the Symposium or Banquet, the Phaedrus, the Gorgias, 
the Theaetetus, the Protagoras, the Parmenides; a group of five 
pieces on the death of Socrates: the Euthyphrus, the Apology, 
the Crito, and the Phaedo. In all of these writings it is evident 
as with Socrates preceding him, and whose doctrines he im- 
proves, that philosophy did not mean mere speculation, but wis- 
dom, which meant wise action and then virtue. From this stand- 
point his school endeavored to set forth sound-mindedness which 
should lead to justice. 

For his time there seems to have been a great need for his posi- 
tion as a reformer, for the following fable depicts clearly the 
lamentable standard of morals that prevailed, which he uses as 
an illustration in his “The Republic”: ‘The liberty which we 
are supposing may be most conveniently given to them in the 
form of such a power as is said to have been possessed by Gyges, 
according to tradition, the ancestor of Croesus, the Lydian. For 
Gyges was a shepherd and servant of the king of Lydia, and 
while he was in the field, there was a storm and earthquake, 
which made an opening in the earth at the place where he was 
feeding his flock. 

“He was amazed at the sight, and descended into the open- 
ing, where among other marvels, he beheld a hollow brazen horse, 
having doors, at which he stooping and looking in, he saw a 
dead body, of stature, as appeared to him, more than human, 
and having nothing on but a gold ring: this he took from the 
finger of the dead, and reascended out of the opening. Now thé~— 
shepherds met together, according to custom, that they might 


Shall Jesus Find Faith on Earth? he 


send their monthly report concerning the flock to the king; and 
into this assembly he came having the ring on his finger, and as 
he was sitting among them he chanced to turn the collect of the 
ring toward the inner side of the hand, when instantly he became 
invisible, and the others began to speak of him as if he were no 
longer there. 

“THe was astonished at this, and again touching the ring he 
turned the collect outward and reappeared; thereupon he made 
trials of the ring, and always with the same result: when he 
turned the collect inward he became invisible, when outward he 
reappeared. Perceiving this, he immediately contrived to be 
chosen messenger to the court, where he no sooner arrived than 
he seduced the queen, and with her help conspired against the 
king, and slew him, and took the kingdom. 

“Suppose now there were two such magic rings, and the just 
put on one of them, and the unjust the other; no man is of such 
adamantine temper that he would stand fast in justice,—that is 
what they think. No man would dare to be honest when he could 
safely take what he liked out of the market, or go into houses and 
lie with any one at his pleasure, or kill or release from prison 
whom he would, and in all respects be like a god among men. 
Then the actions of the just would be as the actions of the un- 
just, just or unjust would arrive at last at the same goal. 

“And this is surely a great proof that a man is just; not will- 
ingly or because he thinks that justice is any good to him in- 
dividually, but of necessity, for wherever any one thinks that he 
can safely be unjust, there he is unjust. For all men believe in 
their hearts that injustice is far more profitable to the individual 
than justice, and he who takes this line of argument will say that 
they are right. For if you could imagine any one having such a 
power, and never doing any wrong or touching what was 
another’s, he would be thought by the lookers on to be a most 
wretched idiot, although they would praise him to one another’s 
faces, and keep up appearances with one another from fear that 
they too might be sufferers of injustice.” 


78 Shall Jesus Find Faith on Earth? 


It is against this state of society that such men arose to de- 
fend sound-mindedness and justice, wherewith Plato stands 
forth as a preacher of righteousness, according to the light which 
possessed him. Although his doctrines were too recondite for 
the popular ear, and few attending his lectures, yet if Zeus could 
moralize, he surely would have spoken as Plato did, who at his 
death in the year 347, B. C., and in his eightieth year, transferred 
his school to his followers, of which Aristotle later became the 
leading figure. 

Of all the systems of philosophy of antiquity, that of Aristotle 
seems best adapted to the minds and requirements of men then 
living, because of its concreteness and therefore practicability. 
He was born at Stagira, a seaport town of Chalcidice, in the year 
384, B.C. Early losing his parents by death, he journeyed to 
Athens, where he became “the intellect’? of the school of Plato. 
After twenty years residence here he accepted an invitation from 
Philip of Macedon to instruct his son Alexander, to whom he 
gave seven years of his life, when again he returned, the Athen- 
ians giving him the Lyceum, where for thirteen years he de- 
livered his famous lectures. Mornings he tutored a select and 
older class of students, in the afternoons a much wider circle. 

It is said that he wrote from four hundred to a thousand dis- 
sertations. Possibly the story of Strabo concerning the destruc- 
tion of*his numerous works in a cellar is mere fable. Parts of 
his writings have been edited, as cited traditionally, by his pupils, 
and thus transferred to posterity, which are declared to deal with 
every phase of knowledge known to man, and upon which 
modern education in science and morals greatly depends for 
further development. 

His whole system of thought is founded upon a close observa- 
tion of human nature and the outer world, seeking to express 
not only the practical things of life but also the true and noble 
in ethics. He was the most comprehensive genius the world has 
ever produced. His inimitable brain sought out God if happily 
he might find Him, and, from a metaphysical standpoint he 


Shall Jesus Find Faith on Earth? 79 


certainly came nearer to the solution of the problem of the Deity 
than any mortal being by reasoning ever achieved. 

His view on this subject he sets forth in his “Metaphysics,” 
where he deals with “The Existence and Attributes of the Deity,” 
as follows: “The principle of life is inherent in the Deity; for 
the energy or active exercise of Mind constitutes life; and God 
constitutes this Energy; and essential Energy belongs to God as 
His best and everlasting Life. Now, our statement is this: That 
the Deity is a Being that is everlasting and most excellent in na- 
ture; so that with Deity, Life and Duration are uninterrupted and 
eternal; for this constitutes the very essence of God.” 

It is said that this doctrine brought on the charge of impiety, 
because thereby he neglected the worship of the Athenian gods, 
and he fled for his life “in order that the Athenians might not a 
second time sin against philosophy.” He took the charge so to 
heart in all the intensity of its persecution, that it sent him to 
an early grave at Chalsis, in the year 322, B.C. In fact it meant 
the decline of the Grecian schools of philosophy, for gradually 
now the world plunged into such awful moral and spiritual dark- 
ness that all cheer and hope were lost, at a time, when— 


“Careless seemed the great Avenger; history’s pages but record 
One death-grapple in the darkness, ’twixt old systems and the Word; 
Truth forever on the scaffold, Wrong forever on the throne,— 
Yet that scaffold sways the future, and behind the dim unknown 
Standeth God within the shadow, keeping watch above His own.” 


CHAPTER X. 


5). CAN THE DIVINE PURPOSE THEN BE RECOG- 
NIZED IN THE INTELLECTUAL AWAKENING THAT 
PRECEDED THE APPEARANCE OF OUR SAVIOUR? 


“In certain crises the mind of man, weary of that which is, 
reverts to its original powers, and from its own unbounded re- 
sources, begins anew its culture. The foundations of such crises 
are laid deep in the progress of humanity; they are dependent 
upon a long series of historical conditions, and therefore, they are 
rare. They never appear except in the fulness of time. 


“Such a fulness of time modern philosophy required for its 
independence of thought, with all the originality of its founda- 
tions, remains in constant intercourse with all its historical pre- 
suppositions. It contradicts them in its first period, and sharpens 
this contradiction to a complete contrast; as it progresses, it in- 
clines to them, and feels a kinship with them; and in its most re- 
cent period, it renews this antagonism and this relationship. 
Thus, modern philosophy always sustains a definite relation to 
the philosophy of ancient times, and never permits it to vanish 
from its horizon.” (Fischer, Hist. Mod. Phil., p. 140). 


Accordingly the Divine purpose seems to be to prove that the 
cultivation of reason and morals are laws in human nature, and 
to point the way in the crises which are inevitable, when men find 
themselves utterly helpless in their aspirations; “in Jesus Christ, 
who alone could solve the deepest and most difficult of this 
world’s problems, man’s salvation from the world. Jesus was the 
personal solution of this problem; He forms therefore the de- 
cisive crisis in the development of humanity, as Socrates was in 
the development of Greek consciousness. This comparison shows 
likewise the difference between the two. At this point in the 
history of humanity a spiritual renewing began. Before this was 
possible, it was necessary for the divine idea to be embodied in a 


person who restored and revealed the human archetype in Him- 
80 


Shall Jesus Find Faith on Earth? 81 


self ; then it was necessary for humanity to recognize this arche- 
type as its own, and believe in the person Jesus Christ as the Sa- 
viour of the world. This faith in Jesus Christ forms the founda- 
tion and the principle of Christianity; it contains the problem 
which from that time occupied humanity, and out of which new 
problems are progressively developed.” (Fischer, Ridpath Univ. 
Lit., vol. 10, p. 140). 


If Jesus Christ “forms the decisive crisis in the development 
* it is historically evident that He stepped into the 
arena at a time when the world was prepared for His coming. 
And, truly the world was weary. It had tried to help itself dur- 
ing four thousand years and ignominiously failed. ‘Unless it please 
God to send some one to instruct us,’ said Socrates to his pupil 
Alcibiades, “do not hope ever to succeed in reforming the morals 
of men; the best course we can take, is to wait patiently; yes we 
must wait patiently until some one comes.” (Jowett). 


of humanity,’ 


And what had been the sorrowful longing of Socrates, had be- 
come the wailing cry of the world. The moral condition of 
society just previous to the coming of Jesus Christ was most de- 
plorable. There was universal unbelief; and still a longing to be- 
lieve in something. There was universal inability to find any 
thing worthy of belief. Pilate’s question, ‘““What is truth ?’— 
was an inquiry to which no answer seemed to come but its own 
tantalizing echo. “All religions are true’—the people said, “one 
is as good as another.” “All religions are false,’—the philos- 
ophers answered, “one is no better than the other, solace your- 
selves with any, or all, poor fools, it makes no difference.” 


The oracles were silent. Plato forbade intemperance except- 
ing at the feasts. Aristotle forbade lewd images excepting those 
of the gods and godesses. The usual worship was one of hor- 
rible uncleanness. The so-called golden age of the Jews, Greeks 
and Romans had reached past time, and the promised “Day- 


82 Shall Jesus Find Faith on Earth? 


spring from on High” delayed His appearance; and even pious 


hearts were heavy and the ages were sad. 
“Such is the aspect of this shore: 
’Tis Greece—but living Greece no more. 
So coldly sweet, so deadly fair, 
We start, for soul is wanting there. 
Her’s is the liveliness in death 
That parts not quite with parting breath; 
But beauty with that fearful bloom, 
That hue which haunts it to the tomb, 
Expression’s last receding ray, 
A gilded halo hovering round decay, 
The farewell beam of Feeling past away. 
Spark of that flame, perchance of heavenly birth, 
Which gleams, but warms no more its cherished earth, 
Clime of the unforgotten brave. 
Whose land, from plain to mountain cave, 
Was Freedom’s shrine or Glory’s grave. 
Shrine of the mighty! can it be 
That this is all remains of thee?” (Byron) 


Ripe indeed was the period of His advent. The great clock of 
God, ticking slowly through the centuries, struck at the right 
hour, proving that “man’s extremity is God’s opportunity.” 
When men confessed that they could not help themselves, then 
God came to their aid. As to Abraham there was a ram caught 
in the thicket fit for sacrifice, so to men, helpless and hopeless, 
God came, giving them exactly by revelation what they needed, 
sight of Him, brotherhood with Him, the Sacrifice Once for 
All; the Way, the Truth, and the Life. 

History points to a golden milestone in the center of Rome, and 
it tells us that all the highways of the great empire radiated from 
it, and all petitioners traveled toward it. Thus also, and more 
so, can we say, that Jesus Christ, our Lord and Redeemer, is the 
Golden Mile Stone in the Kingdom of God. To it all human 
needs converge; from it all divine help proceeds. “I know men,” 
declared the great Napoleon, “but I tell you Jesus Christ was 
not aman. Socrates died as a philosopher, but Jesus Christ died 
like a God.” Verily He outgrows all human proportions. He is 
the Ideal of Perfection. 

“The same can be said of no other being that ever lived, no 


Shall Jesus Find Faith on Earth? 83 


matter what was the extent of his genius, the order of his talents, 
or the fashion of their exercise. Plato is not the constant theme 
of philosophy, for there have been and are other philosophers 
that divide with him the honors. Aristotle is not the sole repre- 
sentative of logic, for there have been and are logicians that 
stand his peer. Napoleon does not monopolize the admiration of 
those that study the art of war, for there have been, and perhaps 
there are now, other military chieftains whose achievements are 
of so high an order that they command the admiration of all mili- 
tary men. 

“And so in whatever sphere we find the great representative 
men of the world, we find that no one has been or is great enough 
to monopolize opinion and command universal homage. Whether 
you look at philosophy, poetry, music, science, art, or religion, 
you find that however great any actor has been, there have been 
other actors, both before and after, that divided fame with him, 
and had a common share in the applause and the remembrance 
of men. Only in respect of Jesus of Nazareth can it be said 
that one man had all, and was all, that one in His order could 
have and be. As a religionist, as a religious teacher, teaching in 
the twofold method of example and instruction both,—Jesus 
was opulent in gifts, so remarkable in manner and method, so 
magnificent in every class of equipment demanded by His mis- 
sion, that He represented and represents all there was and all 
there is to be represented to the devout attention of mankind.” 
(Murray). 

And once again, there is to be seen here the vital difference be- 
tween the followers of the lowly, incarnate God as recognized in 
Jesus Christ our Lord, and the followers of the sages, which is 
the difference between naturalism and revelation. One may be 
as beautiful as a Greek statue, gifted with genius, mannered like 
a prince, environed with all the luxuries of a palace, but, if with- 
in is an impure heart, an unscrupulous conscience, a perverted 
intellect, selfish and narrow motives, we declare such to be a 
whited sepulcher, and those who imitate them are blind. 


&4 Shall Jesus Find Faith on Earth? 


But the divinely renewed heart, the new creature in Christ 
Jesus, with the life within the branch as it comes from the Vine, 
in quest of the noblest ideal, finds in Him the source of all right 
actions, of noble influences, truth, sincerity, love and light; prov- 
ing that The Star in which the nations were to rejoice was not to 
shine from the salons of philosophism, but by way of revelation. 

Therefore, a concluding survey of the great field of Greek phil- 
osophy will evidence the fact that “the affectionate morality and 
piety of a Pythagoras degenerated into the superstitious mysticism 
of the later Pythagoreans, and his immortality of the soul and 
of rewards and punishment after death, into a coarse metempsy- 
chosis. The clear and lofty Theism of Socrates, his recognition 
of virtue, and his perception of the true dignity of human nature, 
passed through Plato into the disputative skepticism of the 
Academy. The emphatic protest of the Eleatic school against a 
gross and materialistic polytheism, and its distinct consciousness 
of the unity and spiritual nature of God, became secularized in 
Parmenides, and atheistic in the skeptical sophistry of Zeno and 
the ascetic dualism of Empedocles. The idealistic philosophy of 
Plato, with its strong resemblance to revealed doctrine on the 
subject of God, the soul, sin and the other life, died in the prob- 
abilities and lax morality of minor philosophers. The philos- 
ophy of Aristotle, pure if cold, and elevating if selfish, ended 
in the materialistic atheism of a Strabo.” (Garbett, Hom. Encl., 
p. 81). 

Thus the age to which Jesus spoke had been experimenting 
upon existence without God. The earth glittered with the rem- 
nants of a magnificent civilization. Greek literature was rich 
with intellectual wealth. Art glowed with resplendent and death- 
less beauty. The Forum rang with echoes of a peerless eloquence. 
Yet the splendor of that age was but the glimmer of decay. 
Character touched bottom. Energy had gone. Vitality was spent. 
Dissolution had begun. Then Jesus spoke. The pulse of a new 
life began to beat. A soul sprang into being beneath the very 
ribs of death. The words of Jesus put an unspeakable value 


Shall Jesus Find Faith on Earth? 85 


upon the lowliest life at an hour when suicide was defended by 
the teachers of the day. 


The words of Jesus clothed the slave with humanity in a day 
when slaves might be nailed to a cross at the mere whim of a 
master. They wreathed childhood with a tender grace in an 
hour when children were mere ciphers in the social sphere of 
the world. They hallowed womanhood with a dignity of beauty 
that is to this day unknown outside of Christianity. 

Throughout the centuries, before and after that Voice was 
heard among men, there have been many wonderful words 
spoken, fire words that kindled noble enthusiasm; many thoughts 
have been uttered which have brought untold blessing; but noth- 
ing has ever entered the mind, or come from the lips, which 
could heal the sin diseased soul of man, as does the teaching of 
Jesus Christ our Lord. | 


When the heart is sore with sin, no speech is comforting and 
sweet, save that which tells of the Lamb of God that takes away 
the sin of the world. When we enter the solemn mystery of 
sorrow, and God gives us bread moistened with tears, there 
is no solace for our pain, save in the sympathy of Him who 
agonized in Gethsemane. When the portals of eternity are be- 
ginning to open, there will be no voices to support us save the 
voice of Him who was dead and is alive again, and who holds in 
His pierced hands the keys of death. 


When we think of the teaching of Jesus, it seems as though the 
veil of the sky were becoming thin, and the glory from the 
eternal throne were streaming down upon us, and there were 
echoing in our ears the proclamation of long ago, “This is my 
beloved Son in whom I am well pleased; hear ye Him.” 


As we listen to Him, our consciences become keen of edge to 
sever between the false and the true, we become strong with 
power for endeavor and endurance, our minds become enriched 
with serene views of truth; and we come to live the life of those 
who know the joyful sound of the voice of God and walk all 


86 Shall Jesus Find Faith on Earth? 


the day in the light of His countenance. Yea, verily, “never man 
spake like this man.” 


“Q Love that wilt not let me go, 
I rest my weary soul in Thee; 
I give Thee back the life I owe, 
That in Thine ocean depths its flow 
May richer, fuller be.” 


SHALL JESUS FIND FAITH ON EARTH? 
If. 


ACCORDING TO 
TOES PSYCHOLOGY OR RERIGION: 


or, 


SOME PSYCHOLOGICAL ASPECTS OF RELIGIOUS 
EXPERIENCE 


CHAPTER XI. 


The seven modern wonders as discerned by certain Cornell 
University professors some years ago, prompted Professor 
Charles Gray Shaw, of the University of New York, in a daily 
paper to suggest a list somewhat different from the one framed 
by those disciples of exteriority. 

He presented them as follows: “The sense of selfhood, as it 
appears in the modern drama, especially that of Ibsen; the esthet- 
ic revolt against science, as it appears in Nietzsche and the Sym- 
bolists; the principle of value in the economic and ethical signif- 
icance; the social drama; music, especially the operas of Wag- 
ner; voluntaristic psychology, which has reformed rationalism ; 
interior life, as this is brought out in psychology, and that in a 
way that psychology itself does not understand.” 

Professor Shaw’s last wonder he sets forth in the acknowledg- 
ment that science is unable fully to apply her tests because the 
soul of man is a conception far beyond her realm, where ex- 
perience alone dare speak with assurance. Nevertheless it is 
most interesting to note that modern science does not deny the 
existence of the soul, and because of this it becomes a new field 
of endeavor, wherein she must reverently, and perhaps more so 
than with any other problem, take off her shoes, treading on holy 
ground, if happily she may find the object of her quest. 

That science would attempt this, is Professor Shaw’s sixth 


modern wonder, which he terms “voluntaristic psychology, which 
87 


88 Shall Jesus Find Faith on Earth? 


has reformed rationalism.”’ Perhaps the latter clause is super- 
ficial, and it may be a mere conjecture to assert that the reforma- 
tion of rationalism needed the world war to break its sway, which 
it held for more than one hundred years. Yet the first clause is 
permissible, where the several departments of creation are yield- 
ing their secrets to the search-light of science, proceeding to 
illuminate every nook and corner of the labyrinth of the natural 
and the spiritual world, in things physical, mental and spiritual. 
She searches for cause and effect, and where possible brings to 
light the new powers discovered that they may be placed at the 
disposal of mankind. 

Somehow modern scientific investigation has now come to a 
place where it expresses the supposition that the soul is inde- 
pendent of the material limitations of the body, though manifest- 
ing its peculiar nature in one way or another through the body. 

This is indeed a surprising concession, but it is similar to ex- 
perimentation with ether and electricity, which actually have 
brought out no definite conceptions. Harnessing these forces to 
the advantage of mankind have not revealed what they are, for 
the direct demonstration of the one or the other, at least for the 
present, is impossible. They may be one and the same, or cause 
and effect. Just so science and even modern theology are grop- 
ing in the dark as to what the soul really is. 

It is not acceptable as some claim, that ether, electricity and 
the soul, are mere theoretical conceptions, resting only on in- 
ferences drawn from observation or dogina. There is no reason 
whatever, why the scientist cannot be impressed as much as any 
one else by the confession of Socrates, who condemned to death, 
said to his friends: “If the soul is immortal, then does she stand 
in want of care, not only during this period which we call life, 
but for all time, and we may well consider that there is terrible 
danger in neglecting her. If death indeed were an escape from 
all things, then were it a great gain to the wicked, for it would 
be a release from the body and from their own sin and from the 
soul at the same time; but now, as the soul proves to be immor- 


Shall Jesus Find Faith on Earth? 89 


tal, there is no other escape from evils to come, nor any other 
safety than in her attaining to the highest virtue and wisdom.” 

If this remarkable statement be accepted as coming from one 
whose soul asserted itself in the midst of pagan darkness, know- 
ing no Saviour, no hope, no immortality with Christian assurance 
excepting as his faith was instinctive and perfectly natural; if 
science similarly and as a whole knows nothing of God, revela- 
tion or immortality, yet perceiving that natural laws must be 
similar in the spiritual world; and with Sir Oliver Lodge, recent- 
ly asserting that his investigations with ether and electricity 
have proven to him the existence of the soul of man because of 
phenomena which he cannot deny; then science, if she desires, 
has a right to proceed in her experimentation, trying to establish 
a basis for belief, calling it the science of psychology, which 
though separated from other sciences, its method must naturally 
be introspective rather than objective. 

Because of certain evidences in recent years we find philos- 
ophers and so-called specialists in psychology dealing with the 
nature of the soul of man from many angles, mainly evolution, 
indescriminately mixing this and that phenomenon, seeking to 
find its constitution exclusively for science. On this foundation, 
said Dr. D. Adam, “there is an almost earnest attempt in our day 
to realize inner strength through the cultivation of one’s self, by 
the aid of the new psychology. There is an interesting literature 
growing up around the subject of personal enrichment through 
the recognition of psychological law. No one who understands 
it aright can fail to see a great deal of forgotten truth in this 
most interesting field, so far as it goes. My only objection to it 
is that it is subjective. It turns one’s thoughts in upon self. It 
makes personal growth a matter of acute diagnosis, and intro- 
spection. And consequently it fails of its purpose.” 

The Christian student, on the other hand, broader in his con- . 
ceptions, experienced in the revealed will and love of God by sal- 
vation through Jesus Christ in the inner man, awakened to a 
nobler consciousness, laboring to aspire with His strength, whose 


90 Shall Jesus Find Faith on Earth? 


“mortal lips, are touched with God’s own truth’s immortal fire” ; 
or, as Professor Shaw declared, “in a way that psychology it- 
self does not understand,” reasons objectively, and considers the 
soul from experience, its moral conditions and possibilities. 


CHAPTER XII. 


Bee loibeNA LURE OAND ELEMENTS OR. THE PSY- 
eriGe LIFE; IMPORTANGE’ OF OUR INSTINCTIVE 
Mii ArORE OR OUR GRELIGIOUS BEUIEEF:. 


Psychology as the term implies, is the teaching of the soul in 
all its powers, activities and possibilities. The student usually be- 
gins with the question, “What is the soul?” As with philosophy a 
satisfactory answer can only be reached from the study as a 
whole. The word “soul,” originally, in the Greek, meant “the 
breath of life,’ and according to Homer, continued after life in 
the underworld enveloped in shadows. This vague idea reminds 
us of the speculations of the learned in all ages, as set forth most 
tritely by Sir John Davis: 

“Some her chair up to the brain do earry; 

Some sink it down into the stomach’s heat; 
Some place it in the root of life, the heart; 
Some in the liver, fountain of the veins; 

Some say, she’s all in all, and all in every part; 
Some say, she’s not contain’d, but all contains. 
Thus these great clerks their little wisdom show, 
While with their doctrines they at hazard play, 
Tossing their light opinions to and fro, 

To mock the learn’d, as learn’d in this as they.” 

How well this illustrates modern “medical materialism,” to 
which Professor William James, the eminent psychologist refers, 
when he says, “When they criticise our own exalted soul-flights 
by calling them ‘nothing but expressions of our own organic dis- 
position, we feel outraged and hurt, for we know that, what- 
ever be our organism’s peculiarities, our mental states have their 
substantive value as revelations of the living truth; and we wish 
all this medical materialism could be made to hold its tongue. 
Nothing could be more stupid than to bar out phenomena from 
our notice merely because we are incapable of taking part in any- 
thing like them ourselves.” (Varieties Rel. Exp., p. 13, 109). 

As the soul has very often been claimed to be material, Cicero 


seems foremost in having entertained the idea that it was similar 
gI 


92 Shall Jesus Find Faith on Earth? 


to the body with harmonious members, though distinct from the 
body. Plato distinguished two constituent parts, the mortal and 
the immortal. The soul being connected with the body naturally 
would share its actions and changes. In so far as the soul is 
capable of eternal knowledge and truth, there must be some- 
thing divine, which Plato terms reason. He also looked upon 
zeal as the intermediary member between body and soul. 


Aristotle first declared the soul as the life principle of an 
organic body; in so far as we ascribe life to plants just so far do 
we give it soul; the body having only a nourishing soul, thereby 
grows and propagates itself. The soul of the brute has only the 
power of nourishment and propagation, together with a sense of 
feeling through which it discerns its likes and dislikes. The hu- 
man soul not only nourishes and feels but thinks. The soul 
therefore is the foundation and dynamic power of all the ac- 
tivities of a human being, the principle of bodily and spiritual 
ites 


This view places the soul in a position where it does not exist 
for itself alone but for the body as well. We cannot conceive of 
a soul except it be connected with the body. What is the re- 
lationship? Every observation is the same as the Greeks taught, 
that the soul is the governor or life principle of the body, that it 
has no particular habitation, penetrating every part and making 
the members what they are; for it is the soul that looks out of 
the eyes, hears through the ears, smells through the nostrils; is 
the dynamic power of the muscles without which the organs and 
members are lifeless. It is the unifying power by which the 
whole is bound together. 


All life proceeds through organisms; all organisms consist of 
cells, the smallest and simplest elements of these are readily 
seen in the dissection of an organism, proving a living unity in a 
living plurality. In bringing this mechanism under closest scruti- 
ny, we find that it does not consist of members so much as bodies 
which are outwardly brought together as a whole. This 


Shall Jesus Find Faith on Earth? 93 


mechanism must then be put in operation at will, and then 
again become immovable, as desired. 

Thus far, the soul is the shaping, life giving and governing 
power of the human organism. Under this term we understand 
the cause of action, though the power itself may not be sensibly 
felt, yet the motion is evident. We must also not readily con- 
clude that the soul steps into the body from without as it sud- 
denly disappears in death. The body is what it is through the 
soul, working and appointing its development to the extent where 
it can be said that the body is the visible substance of the in- 
visible soul; it is the product of the soul. 

Consequently the soul is the primary element which exists as 
the life of the body. As such we stand before an astonishing 
phenomenon similar to all God’s creation. As little as we can 
determine the soul’s beginning, just so are we unable to discern 
the foundation of life. The sharpest reasoning must here confess 
that we stand before the inconceivable, where we can only know 
that it is an act of God worthy of admiration and praise. All 
the ingenuity of psychologists focussed upon life could not satis- 
factorily define it. All we may know is that it is something 
working from within. 

Our observation can then only say that life is a motive power 
needing certain conditions for exertion, possessing the fountain 
of action, nourishing itself from this inner force, existing, mov- 
ing and propagating itself accordingly. What more can be said 
than that this essence is the divine in all life, for it is God 
who works unceasingly in all His creatures, “in Whom we live 
and move and have our being.” 

Finite beings however, with their so-called knowledge, have 
dared to deny the Infinite, philosophically lifting tangible things 
to almighty power. It is thus that a materialistic atheism de- 
clares the soul merely as the effect of the body, as the product 
of living tissues. It claims the material atom immortal, that all 
life is but an attribute of the material, the soul an expression of 
the body. 


94 Shall Jesus Find Faith on Earth? 


On the other hand “spiritism,’ wrongly called “spiritualism,” 
is directly opposed to materialism, laying no weight whatever 
on the visibility of things. Hiding its deluding and tricking sa- 
tanic motives, it claims that the body is a prison house, wherein 
the soul is chained, ignoring the fact that the Divine Will created 
the body intending it the temple of the Holy Ghost; which is a 
nobler conception. 


There are two fundamental activities of the soul which be- 
gin at birth and without which there is no life. The one is sensa- 
tion, often termed feeling, and the other instinct, sometimes called 
desire, which is the basis of what we feel, hear, see, taste or smell. 
These are life processes of the soul. Sensation means the 
distinguishing between what is agreeable and disagreeable; in- 
stinct is the effort to attain the agreeable and warding off the 
disagreeable, sometimes discerning prematurely. It is the effect- 
ual working of sensation, and where the unity of both is seen. 


Taken together, they form the one great fundamental basis of 
mankind, called receptivity; whilst instinct alone, is a striving 
from within outward, sometimes called the faculty of the will. 
The soul thus proves itself from the beginning as possessing the 
principle of feeling, perceiving and desiring. This sense per- 
ception is at the same time the spirit, the ability to discern, think 
and act consciously, whereby the soul becomes a free personality, 
wherein God’s image is revealed. 


Instinctively 'then man is a religious being, whether he believes 
in the Triune God or not. Savages have been discovered who 
seemingly had lost all credulity in gods, ghosts or demons. 
Nevertheless this does not mean that they had lost all capacity 
for God. Instinctively men have always believed in Him how- 
ever low they may have fallen. With this peculiar faculty man 
stands alone upon the mountain-top searching through space for 
the Absolute. Socrates thus exclaimed, “I consider how I shall 
present my soul whole and undefiled before the Judge on that 
day. Renouncing the honors at which the world aims, I desire 


Shall Jesus Find Faith on Earth? 95 


only to know the truth, and to live as well as I can, and when 
the time comes, to die.” 

In whatever degree of intelligence men may have exerted 
themselves, from the savage barbarian to the civilized thinker, it 
is evident that they knew “the judgment of God,” and that they 
were “a law unto themselves.” “O the depth of the riches both 
of the wisdom and knowledge of God; how unsearchable are 
His judgments, and His ways past finding out.” 

The soul of man then, is the principle of the body and the 
germ for the development of the larger life. Both are bound to- 
gether in one indivisible unity, which explains the phenomenon 
that the soul is bound to the body and influences it until the body 
ceases to perform its functions. Thus to know, or knowledge, 
and the will are inseparable, we divided them only in thought, be- 
cause we can in no other way distinguish them. We discern then 
only two fundamental faculties of the human soul, the receptive, 
or faculty of sensibility, and the reactionary, or power of the will, 

On the relationship of these two fundamental powers then de- 
pend what are called the temperaments, whereby we understand 
the ruling disposition of a person. Since Hippocrates and 
Galenus, in the second century after Christ, we distinguish four 
temperaments: the sanguine, the melancholic, the phlegmatic and 
the choleric. In the sanguine, the receptive disposition predomi- 
nates onesided; here is seen a susceptibility for most anything, a 
judgment formed from outward circumstances, serenity and 
gaiety, but also a deficiency in stability and concentration. Fickle- 
ness and thoughtlessness characterize this temperament, which 
predominates in childhood. 

The reverse is seen in the reactionary disposition which rules 
onesided with the melancholic; its action is preeminently directed 
toward spiritual things. This peculiarity is found in the lack of 
susceptibility for the outer world, living only on inner, or spir- 
itual things. It is the temperament of thinkers, philosophers, 
theologians, mystics, poets and artists. The tendency to with- 
draw from the world often tends toward dejectedness, and in 


96 Shall Jesus Find Faith on Earth? 


many instances suicide, where the individual has reached either 
the stage of agnosticism or insanity. 


In the phlegmatic disposition is recognized one not easily 
aroused to feeling and action; cold, calm, sluggish; as the term 
implies, full of phlegm; not impressed, indifferent, selfish, which 
if allowed full reign, will end in catastrophe. Such men are as 
uncertain as a clogged weather-vane, having no appreciation of 
things unseen or eternal. Great men, intellectually, some of them; 
but, although they appear in the haunts of men, they are dead “at 
the top,” “atrophied,” 


“The wretch of both worlds: for so mean a sum, 
First starved in this, then damned in that to come.” 

With the choleric temperament ‘the receptive and reactionary 
powers are found in a high degree, receptive for most anything 
and evenly productive. It is the disposition of the world’s few 
men who have labored successfully in the transformation of con- 
ditions for the better in history and society; prophets, apos- 
tles, reformers and statesmen. The temperaments cannot how- 
ever be altogether fully recognized, for the natural disposition 
with individuals as with nations, through education, culture and 
experience, as well as through the power of ‘the will, become very 
modified, and according to God’s intent should be so modified. 
Here the understanding is a prime factor for self-control, the 
climatic stage in which our thinking powers develop themselves, 
whereby we attain knowledge. 


The lowest rung of knowledge is the contemplation of an ob- 
ject attained by meditation through the five senses. In them- 
selves the senses do not perceive, but the spirit through them 
attains knowledge. Under the senses we here understand bodily 
organs which animals altogether use to nourish themselves and 
hold the body intact. With man however they not only do this, 
but also take up impressions from the outer world, and the world 
beyond. Through the sense of touch we get an impression of 
feeling. The activity of this sense is mechanical, through which 


Shall Jesus Find Faith on Earth? 97 


we learn the attributes of certain objects, such as hardness, soft- 
ness, roughness, smoothness, solidity, liquidity, whether things 
are cold, lukewarm or hot. 

The activity of the tasting and smelling organs depend on a 
chemical process through which we assimilate certain objects. 
That which does not permit itself to be dissolved through saliva 
we cannot taste, and what cannot be reduced to an atmospheric 
condition we cannot smell; both senses are primarily needed 
for the nourishment of the body, and we therefore term them 
material senses, in contrast with the theoretical, as seeing and 
hearing, which are used to discern things dynamic. Both can 
only take up something through light and air. The senses then 
are the agencies through which every discernment from without 
enters the body as well as the soul; for, with the ear we take up 
sounds and the thoughts of others as they express them vocally, 
and with the eyes what is written. If something impresses the 
soul and body passively, that action is called feeling. It is not exact- 
ly the consciousness of something subjective nor objective. What 
is only in the feeling has not yet become an object of our think- 
ing, concentration of the mind is first needed. Thus here again 
is seen the inseparable unity of all the powers of the soul. As 
long as I only feel a sensation I cannot speak of it, because I 
have not yet made it an object of thought; but, as soon as I con- 
ceive what it is in thought, concentration is active, for all the 
senses are focussed upon the object. 

The disappearance of representations once held by the mind is 
termed “forgetting” ; the return of forgotten representations, “re- 
membrance.” This then is designated as the power of rep- 
resentation; but as specific activities of the mind they are called 
imagination and memory. 

Under imagination we understand the power of faculty where- 
by the mind creates pictures, ofttimes of things never seen, yet 
sensitive to the mind. Memory on the other hand is that power 
whereby signs, names and figures of objects or persons are pic- 
tured by the mind and formed into thoughts and words. To 


98 Shall Jesus Find Faith on Earth? 


memorize means the concentration of the mind on the retention 
or intended words, thoughts and objects for the purpose of hold- 
ing them fast, achieved easiest when these in written form are 
ordered according to the rule of rhythm. 

The productive power of imagination we term fancy or phan- 
tasy; it is a soul faculty peculiar to poets and artists through 
which they are enabled to picture in words or on canvas their 
inmost thoughts and give them sensible form. Here beauty is 
best illustrated, which is first created in the mind by phantasy. 
Beautiful we term that phenomenon which agreeably penetrates 
our spirits so that we understand and enjoy it. Three distinc- 
tions of the beautiful are evident: all things beautiful must 
be phenomena that are picturesque, conceivable and _ sensible. 
Poetry pictures in well sounding words and rhythm thoughts 
that were first idealized in the mind of the poet. 

Plato claimed that the beautiful must be expressed in spiritual 
language, without which it can only be vain ostentation. The 
sensible and the spiritual accordingly must so intermingle that 
they cannot be distinguished one from another. It is a wrong 
conception to think the poet or artist received the thought 
spontaneously and then put it into sensible form in order to 
bring it into exhibition; where this is noticed, poetry and art are 
cold and inanimate. Yet it is peculiar to the poetic or artistic 
mind to create such forms in which the original and complete 
unity of body and soul are bound together. 

The essential peculiarity of the beautiful is its direct work- 
ing upon the mind. It pleases as soon as seen or heard though 
we may not immediately perceive the cause. The sensible in the 
beautiful then naturally turns toward the senses, and since these 
are intimately bound with the spiritual, our souls are stirred. A 
work of art must first be studied before it can be appreciated. 
The beauty of nature in which divine thoughts stand out be- 
fore us physically must be considered in the same manner. The 
senses then are faculties with which we perceive the beautiful 
indirectly and without the interpretation of a logical understand- 


Shall Jesus Find Faith on Earth? 99 


ing. From-this conception of the beautiful one can readily see 
the peculiar activity of the imagination and understanding. 
Imagination and memory are therefore closely related because 
they need each other for support, the former tending toward a 
conceivable object in view, whilst the latter is directed toward 
the abstract. 

On the other hand, by understanding is meant the activity of 
the thinking mind which no longer is directed toward a picture 
or outward form of an object, but focussed upon its inner being, 
which cannot be perceived through the senses. When I take 
hold upon this inner thing or object with my mind I create 
thoughts; thoughts therefore are products of the mind directed 
toward the inner being of an object; this essence of things taken 
up in its whole determination we term conception or idea of a 
thing, and therefore define the understanding also as the ability 
to form ideas. | 

There is a vast difference between a representation and an 
idea. The child mind has a representation of a table; but a 
thorough development is necessary in order to form an idea of 
the object. This difference is illustrated by our Lord when He 
exclaimed, “Having eyes, see ye not? and having ears, hear ye 
not? and do ye not remember?’ (Mark 8:18). In a higher 
degree this is true in reference to the most difficult ideas of 
beauty, thought and life, not generally grasped, although most 
people can superficially tell what is beautiful, what is life, and 
thereby claim they are thinking. 

What then is the psychological explanation? The develop- 
ment of ideas, judgments and conclusions naturally proves them 
properties of the understanding. Understanding in this sense is 
similarly important with reason or mind. If with reason I 
realize the character of an object, such recognition is termed ob- 
jective thought, wherein my mind is in harmony with the ob- 
ject toward which I am thinking. 

A subjective thought lays hold only on one side or part of the 
object; such subjective conceptions are also termed opinion and 


100 Shall Jesus Find Faith on Earth? 


personal view; naturally here develop diverse opinions of the 
same object which offer many sides for contemplation. All 
knowledge begins with views and opinions. Out of the conflict, 
which is in the nature of philosophical development, objective 
knowledge results, at the conclusion of which the philosophical 
terminus of reason and being are found to be identical. It is here 
for instance that we think God’s thoughts after Him, from whom 
all being went forth. As there is this correspondence between 
thinking and being, things of themselves cannot determine 
thoughts as to mentally illustrate an idea, but the things or ob- 
ject can be determined by thought and set forth verbally. 

Only in the fact that man possesses understanding can there 
come to him consciousness and self-consciousness. Conscious- 
ness implies to know; but to know also implies having taken 
something into the mind. Consciousness 1s the general expres- 
sion for knowing and observing that which takes place within 
and without the soul. Possessing consciousness, we know what 
we think and desire, and reason from these; and he that is un- 
conscious can still be living, yet is unable to take up a thought or 
recognize what is proceeding. 

Consciousness, generally speaking, distinguishes man from all 
lower creatures. Upon the distinguishing faculty of the mind 
depend all thought and judgment; the thought of a child here 
begins to distinguish objects; but also thought scientific and philo- 
sophic here begins with distinguishing and definition. With 
consciousness then begin all thought and the recognition of ob- 
jects. 

Self-consciousness, on the other hand, consists in the mind 
making itself the object of thought, placing itself in contrast or 
opposition to outward circumstances. Complete self-conscious- 
ness, though it disregards all other things, yet recognizes the fact 
of a world, God and mankind, and a relationship to these as 
a whole. 

Since the period of Immanuel Kant, (1724-1804), there has 
been a distinguishing in philosophical thought between intellect, 


Shall Jesus Find Faith on Earth? 101 


judgment and reason; when discerned, which is not general, in- 
tellect is designated as the lower, but judgment and reason the 
higher powers. Intellect is then defined as the faculty through 
which we build ideas by reflection and reach the abstract. The 
power to form judgments, which is the agreement or disagree- 
ment between ideas, and. reason, which is the arrangement of 
ideas and judgments according to the laws of logic, are faculties 
which must be distinguished. 

While the intellect recognizes the character of created objects, 
reason on the other hand considers the relationship between the 
finite and the Infinite, unconditioned in itself as the absolute, the 
final proof of all being and thinking as it exists in God. 

Here is recognized the chief end of man, to glorify God and 
enjoy Him forever. Only as he seeks the truth is the man at 
his best. To be truly religious he must seek to form the highest 
conception of God possible, imperfect under the dispensation of 
the Law, permissible however in the light of revelation from the 
appearance of Jesus Christ our Lord during nineteen centuries of 
marvelous grace. In this supreme purpose, in which the will of 
man and the grace of God are combined, man cannot be de- 
ceived, unless he denies the object of his being. 

Here skepticism proves its own contradiction; for, if the mind 
can know nothing, then it cannot accept what it is able to know. 
It would not only set aside all philosophy, but lead to the most ab- 
ject materialism and indifference, as if the noblest power of man, 
to think and to know, were mere illusions. However, skepticism, 
by its destructive criticism has earned some appreciation in that 
it has shown in certain periods wherein it erred and overlooked 
the truth, and very often aroused men from a corrupting secur- 
ity. In such instances where it has stepped in and proven what 
is truth, it has reasoned in direct opposition to its own premises. 

The positive Christan however, knows the truth with as- 
surance, because he is not only so destined, but to him it is re- 
vealed. Although his knowledge has its limitations on account 
of finite inability to completely grasp the infinite nature of God, 


102 Shall Jesus Find Faith on Earth? 


His greatness, power and holiness, it is necessary that the will 
be brought into harmony with the understanding in order to 
focus the whole being upon that of God. 

The will is a great mystery, and is intimately attached to the 
human personality. While knowledge is a taking up of that 
which lies outside, all desire and will consist in an outward striv- 
ing and going forth of the soul. The activity of both these 
fundamental forces allow themselves to be distinguished. All 
feeling, perception, observation, comprehension, reflection, learn- 
ing, investigation, thinking, knowing, judgments and conclu- 
sions, belong to the power of the understanding. On the other 
hand, all desire, striving, wishing, yearning, demanding, hope, 
fear, love, hate, all that is termed good and evil, decrees and 
purposes, belong to the power of the will. 

Conscience here also exerts itself as the direct knowing of what 
is right and wrong, being conscious of the omnipotence of a right- 
eous and holy God. It is from this that man often feels himself 
destined to do what he knows he ought to do. In the conscious- 
free-will then, lies the actual being, dignity and nobility of man, 
the energizing center of his personality. 

If we permit the superiority of the will, we cannot however 
afford conclusions to the disadvantage of the understanding. 
Somehow knowledge and will must be harmoniously bound to- 
gether, possible in religious faith, the “sixth sense,” generally un- 
known, and therefore undeveloped. Faith here objectively takes 
in the whole of man’s being, as much of his thinking and know- 
ing powers as his will and aspirations. Faith enables us to trust 
where we cannot fully see to reason conclusively, to believe 
where we cannot fully comprehend. With assurance, it is the 
greatest thing in the world. Faith is not, merely a blind trust in 
an unknown quantity, but a wise judgment made about certain 
factors, based upon the abundant facts and evidence that are 
the foundations of those factors. 

Faith craves for higher knowledge and powers. If merely in- 
tellectual, a conservative orthodoxy develops. If merely emo- 


Shall Jesus Find Faith on Earth? 103 


tional, it becomes mysticism and fanaticism. If developed only 
by the will pietism and salvation by good works as doctrines pre- 
dominate. True faith is the indwelling work of the Holy Spirit 
of God by virtue of the covenant of grace, which accepts, receives 
and rests upon Him alone for justification, sanctification and 
eternal life. | 

Thus in bringing all our dissected parts of the soul together, 
we find that it is the God implanted, creating, shaping, animating, 
governing, thinking, understanding, desiring and willing power 
of man, which as a unit makes him what he is and inspires him 
in his aspiration toward the Absolute Ideal. It is the immortal 
germ out of which grow the manifold powers that control the 
mind and body, which, though constituted differently, and often 
contradictory, yet objectively form a unit. As a living, immortal 
personality then, man is not only the image of God, but the 
crown of His creation, that is, when he comes to complete con- 
sciousness of his condition and divine purpose, recognizing and 
helping to fulfil the plan of God in the Redeemer of the world, 
in Whom he attains completest joy and satisfaction. 


CHAPTER XIII. 


2) THE EMOTIONS IN RELIGIOUS LIFE; EMOTION- 
AL PROGRESSION AS* REVEALED BY THE Vib Dee 
OF FEAR AND AWE TO REVERENCE, ADMIRATION, 
GRATITUDE AND TENDERNESS. 


Peculiar is the fact that our stern fathers and mothers feared 
the feelings. The Puritan husband dared not praise his wife, 
and together they withheld all approbation lest the child be 
spoiled. They coerced their lips into silence, hid their tears of 
joy in moments when the heart overflowed with pride over the 
success of son or daughter. They rather died than betray their 
emotions. 


However, we have learned the value and importance of feel- 
ing through experience and observation, and to begin with, we 
would simply define emotion as any strong perturbation of the 
soul either pleasurable or painful that excites the mind, and may 
be looked upon as thought in sudden glow. On the feelings are 
based the whole philosophy of life in conjunction with the in- 
tellect, judgment, conscience and will. The suppression of the 
emotions has proven that man may know many things, least of 
all himself. The temple of Diana may long be in ruins, but its 
portal inscription, “KNOW THYSELF” stands forth embla- 
zoned above its silent arches as a message to beings little con- 
cerned about it. 


Dr. John H. Jowett said, “There is nothing more frail and 
tender than fine emotion. If we act upon it immediately it ac- 
quires a rare robustness, and it perpetuates itself in the soul in 
the form of strength. But if a fine emotion be dallied with, or 
neglected, or deferred, it speedily faints and dies. I suppose 
that of all delicate things the most delicate is an emotion which 
prompts a man to a noble life. We can‘crush it as easily as we 
can crush a snow-drop. We can quench it more easily than we 


can blow out a candle. And the fearful thing about it is this— 
104 


Shall Jesus Find Faith on Earth? 105 


that in order to kill it we do not need to do it violent and de- 
liberate outrage; we have only to neglect it and it will probably 
die in an hour. In these realms delay is spiritual murder. 

“When a certain man procrastinated with his great emotion he 
was really making an alliance with death. When he proposed 
delay he was on the way to spiritual suicide. His fine emotion 
was the gift of lfe—‘“Lord I will follow Thee.” His pro- 
crastination was the minister of death,—‘Suffer me first to go 
and bid farewell to them that are at home.” The Lord Jesus 
Christ knew that while the man was away on the farewell 
mission the heavenly impulse would die; the man would never 
return, for on the way the spiritual angel would be slain. Pro- 
crastination is something far worse than the thief of time, it is 
the murderer of spiritual infants, it is the murderer of the heav- 
enly impulses that are born in the womb of the soul. And so 
here is the teaching for you and me. The Master is solemnly 
urging and emphasizing the supreme delicacy of a noble impulse, 
and the imminent peril which attends delay. And surely the 
warning is as relevant to you and me as to the man to whom it 
was first spoken, and it has immediate application to pressing ex- 
periences in our own life.” 

From this sermon on the frailty of fine emotion we learn that 
one can hardly know himself unless he uses the emotions to ad- 
vantage, and especially those of fear and awe, as they should 
yield to reverence, admiration and tenderness, which belong to 
the law of instant resolution. These are the rungs of Jacob’s 
ladder, the soul’s opportunity whereon it climbs toward the 
sublime by faith in the world’s Redeemer. 

If some selfish, evil motive, assert itself by temptation, and 
entice the soul instead toward the precipice, one should heed the 
warning to halt and think before the fall. When fear and awe 
are aroused and grace divine lures upward as with the patriarch, 
the soul should act resolutely. 

Much is given the soul to control the emotions, to concentrate 
them upon the great activities of life, until it is swept toward the 


106 Shall Jesus Find Faith on Earth? 


haven where love is perfect. A metaphysician recently in a lec- 
ture discussed what he termed “the aura,” wherein he declared, 
that “every man is encircled by a golden sheen, which is the 
radiation of the soul.” What he no doubt meant refers to the 
outward expression of the emotions, as for instance seen on the 
face of Stephen the Martyr. It is that which affects our judg- 
ment of the man; takes from him or adds to him in our estima- 
tion; speaks to us before he opens his mouth, magnifies or mini- 
mizes him in our eyes. 

It is actually something which cannot be suppressed, because it 
is the man himself. It is not his words, what he has been, or in- 
tends to be: it is the essence of the man himself now. If full 
of fear and terror, it cannot be mistaken. He can be read like an 
open book. 

Soul fear, because of conviction of sin, is the experience of 
every human being, some time or another. In due time its 
presence is felt, and no man can escape the conflict or increase 
the probability of personal victory by living in thoughtless op- 
position and forgetfulness. It is vain to cover up the stern 
features of the great destroyer. This is not conquering our foe; 
it is merely looking upon him with one eye wilfully closed.. The 
strength of sin is the law, the principle of moral gravitation, 
which involves that the life which has failed here, will fail here- 
after. ‘“‘Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall be also reap.” 

Voltaire, the French atheist, in fear of death exclaimed to 
his physician, “I will give you half of what I am worth if you 
will give me six months of life.” Hobbs the infidel philosopher 
and erudite author of “Leviathan,” closed his day by saying, “If 
I had the whole world to dispose of, I would give it to live one 
day.” Thomas Paine, the great American skeptic, in the agony 
of his soul cried out upon his death-bed, “It is hell to be alone.” 
How terrible these last words of noted unbelievers, wherewith 
they veritably cursed the day they were born, when they saw 
looming up before them the memories of the past as they were 
about to face judgment for the deeds of the body. “How are 


Shall Jesus Find Faith on Earth? 107 


they brought into desolation, as in a moment. They are utterly 
consumed with terrors.” 

There is no power that can hush the voice of conscience labor- 
ing in opposition to the extended help of a merciful God. Wealth 
cannot help. “Wherefore should I die, being so rich ?’—groaned 
Cardinal Beaufort upon his death couch.—‘If the whole realm 
would save my life, I am able either by policy to get it, or by 
wealth to buy it. Will not death be bribed? Wi§ll money do 
nothing?” And with that echo of the word “nothing,” so ex- 
pressive of the truth, his spirit took its flight. 

Earthly power avails nothing. King Louis XI, was filled with 
such craven fear that he forbade the mentioning of death in 
his presence, especially in his last illness. The exclamation of 
Queen Elizabeth, “The half of my kingdom for an hour of 
time,” has passed into history. Secular knowledge gives no ad- 
vantage. William Pope, the learned skeptic groaned upon his 
death-bed, “My damnation is sealed.”” Also philosophy here fails 
like thin ice beneath the feet of the unwary traveler. Newport 
was a philosopher, but his arguments failed him in the end. 
“What argument,” he exclaimed, “is there against matters of 
fact? Whence this war in my heart? Wretch that I am, whither 
shall I flee from this breast? That there is a God I know, be- 
cause I continually feel the effect of His wrath; that there is a 
hell, I am equally certain, having an earnest of my inheritance 
there already in my breast.” Religious fear accordingly, when 
produced by just apprehensions of Divine righteousness, natural- 
ly overlooks all human greatness that stands in competition with 
it, and extinguishes every other terror. 

On the other hand, if emotional progression toward the light 
sets in, fear of the consequence of sin yields to awe, or a min- 
gling of fear and reverence. The soul is constrained by repentance 
and profound respect toward a reverential fear. It is awed by 
the merciful presence of God. His grace here renews and re- 
stores the action of the inward life and sets it in motion toward 
an upward grade, and with all its power counteracts sin and 


108 Shall Jesus Find Faith on Earth? 


death, developing true reverence, admiration, gratitude and ten- 
derness, creating an exertive influence for good toward God and 
men. 

The emotions never overflow effectively for the better until 
the soul is filled with the Holy Spirit. When a cup is filled, it 
is ready to overflow. When a soul is filled with some big aim, 
a fine desire, some lofty absorbing passion, then it overflows and 
pours down into the world in true beneficence. What we need 
today is large-hearted men who despise narrowness as an un- 
pardonable and preventable sin; men who are willing to break 
down the narrow walls that shut them in at their daily tasks and 
allow the big God-like things that live in them to have free scope: 
men like Moses, Paul, Savonarola, Luther and Moody, filled with 
the Spirit Divine. 

Some great preacher recently emphasized the fact that we do 
no harm to anchor a balloon to the earth; it is man’s plaything, 
and whether it lies low to earth, or soars into the upper air, it 
is of little consequence. But chain a mountain eagle like a 
dog in a barnyard, and it is a different thing entirely. That is 
life born for upper altitudes. Now you bind a sky-thing to earth. 
You are holding in check soaring instincts. You are keeping 
down that which by every known quality of wing and passion 
ought to be up. It is working against divine endowments, against 
native, age-old inheritances to keep the eagle out of the clouds. 
Just so men who live all their working hours at their earthly 
occupations or professions within the narrow confines of the 
shop, office or study, are men who chain the eagle, hungry for the 
sky, to the earth. The wings of their emotions are clipped 
whereby they are doubly handicapped. 

We are not placing a premium on star gazing, or encouraging 
the visionary, who feels that he is wasting time working at busi- 
ness for which he is paid, and who ought, as he thinks, be liv- 
ing in some beautiful, undefiled atmosphere with his soul. But 
we do mean that a man who lives only in the things he does day 
by day as an automaton, is chaining his soul to a stake in the 


Shall Jesus Find Faith on Earth? 109 


earth while it yearns to rise to a higher standard. A full free 
soul only can overflow. Also, this is impossible unless it be filled 
with the richest personality. We know what it is to meet with 
those whose free emotions and beauty of character are highly 
esteemed. Though human yet they thrilled us with the mystery 
of their dignity, their rare delicate sympathy and natural charm: 
what noble example of Christliness, as they follow Him. Every 
soul in this transitory state possesses an ideal of what it would 
like to be. The loftier and nobler the ideal, the more Christ- 
like it becomes, growing in grace and the knowledge of the truth 
as it is in Christ Jesus, a practical witness of the power and glo- 
ry of God. 


Where the emotions are controlled and developed for this end, 
there is not only the assurance of divine grace, but divine power 
will dynamically inspire the soul and through it the souls of 
others toward the love of moral and immortal beauty. It is the 
example of such Christ-inspired, in-breathed souls, with their 
tremendous influence for good that cannot be overestimated. It 
shines with radiant beauty like some bright serene star guiding 
with the glory of its light the footsteps of wanderers lest perad- 
venture they stumble in the night. 


We go to the roots to fertilize a tree; we must go to the heart 
to enrich the emotions. It is the life that resides there that points 
the man to wide horizons and makes life a golden opportunity 
for service. No personality ever existed which exerted its 
influence in any contagious, effective way, that did not have 
a rich, sanctified heart-life filled with reverence, gratitude and 
tenderness. The biography of Dwight Lyman Moody is no 
doubt exceptional, without book-learning, without money, with- 
out the things that glitter and amaze society, yet his personal- 
ity, filled with the Spirit of God, reaped the fruits of saving 
grace. The thing that went out from him and laid a spell on 
two continents was a holy passion for the saving and the serving 
of his fellowmen. He was larger than his shoe business, though 


110 Shall Jesus Find Faith on Earth? 


he made that great. He worked, as some one said, with his head 
and hands, but lived in his heart. 


This instance proves that no man can ever make complete and 
effective use of his personality until his life is surcharged with 
that divine love for man that filled the heart of Christ, that sent 
Him void of books, money and political power through the world 
of needy men, the world’s greatest Benefactor, and then sent 
Him in an act of supreme devotion to men, to the Cross of Cal- 
vary. 


The emotions of our religious life should therefore breathe out 
holiness. St. Peter says, “As He which hath called you is holy, 
so be ye holy in all manner of conversation.” Anything set apart 
unto God is holy. It does not necessarily imply sinlessness. It 
does mean however, that he is not under the domination and 
power of sin. He is not fashioning himself according to the 
maxims of this world, but through the power of God and His 
Christ. 


Is this practical for the world in which we live? It is so urged 
because it is practical. In His High Priestly Prayer, our Lord 
prayed, “I pray not that Thou shouldest take them out of the 
world, but that Thou shouldest keep them from the evil.” We 
thus are to meet evil not by a change of locality, but by a rein- 
forcement of the Spirit. As we meet disease by abounding health 
so we are to meet evil by the very overflow of moral health 
thoroughly spiritualized. How well this is illustrated in “The 
Mighty Music Master,” by James Leroy Stockton: 

“We read life’s music from a hidden score 
Unwinding slowly, and can only see 
The note the Moment gives us. Joyously 
And full of hope we voice it, or heartsore, 
And praying, we may sing it nevermore. 
We cannot hear the perfect symphony, 


God hears. Its faultless blended melody 
Is drowned for us in what ourselves out-pour. 


Fear not the notes writ in the scroll for you 
A Mighty Musie Master made each strain 


Shall Jesus Find Faith on Earth? 111 


To suit the voice that was to sing it through. 
The majors and the minors each are best, 

The burst of joy or tremolo of pain, 
And in each score God writes at last a rest.” 

Religious emotional progression is perhaps best seen in the 
lighted face, which is as near as we shall ever get to seeing the 
soul, it is as nearly visible now as it ever will be here. A stanza 
quoted from Fanny Crosby’s hymn, “Rescue the Perishing,” in 
a year book of the McAuley Mission in New York City evidences 
the wonders there performed night after night, transforming 
many lives that otherwise seemed hopeless: 


“Down in the human heart crushed by the tempter, 
Feelings lie buried that grace can restore; 
Touched by a loving heart, wakened by kindness, 
Chords that were broken will vibrate once more.” 

Their faces shine as they tell the wondrous story of their re- 
demption, as they now find themselves in line with all the host 
of God’s children, waiting for the unveiling of the Divine Artist’s 
Masterpiece, the greatest painting creation ever looked upon since 
the morning stars sang together: the picture of the unveiled sons 
of God. Then shall be seen the full glory of the emotions in the 
consummation of the Church. 

But, when shall appear in us the dazzling outshining of Him 
who hath called us unto nothing less than His eternal glory? 
Plainly, at His coming. And how quickly will this mighty mir- 
acle of glorification be wrought? As swift as the passage of the 
lightning flash across the heavens shall be His advent. And in 
a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, shall follow the marvel 
of the resurrection of God’s children. In that instant the Divine 
Artist’s Masterpiece shall be unveiled, in that instant earth’s 
graves shall burst asunder, and ravaged of their contents, shall 
yield in incorruptible glory the bodies which went down into 
them in corruption. 

A great army has been assaulting the works of the enemy all 
the long weary day. Time and again has it been hurled back in 
bloody defeat, until shattered, bleeding, yet undaunted, it has 


112 Shall Jesus Find Faith on Earth? 


fallen upon the twilight field amid the foeman’s shouts of victory. 
But imagine at midnight the heavens opened in swift vision of a 
descending, celestial leader, the silence broken by a resounding 
shout, and the whole, vast host of slaughtered heroes leaping 
into radiant life, and advancing with shouts of victory on a flee- 
ing, terrified foe. 

Even thus, for myriads of years have the dauntless hosts of 
God’s children been assailing the strongholds of evil, battling for 
the right, manifested, like their Master, to destroy the works 
of the devil, until their wearied bodies have yielded to the last 
enemy, death, and gone down into the grave. 

But suddenly, in one swift intense moment, the jubilee moment 
of the waiting centuries, the descending Lord Himself shall 
shout; up from the quiet valley, from sunlit hillsides, from vil- 
lage burying ground, from the yawning depths of the sea, from 
distant battle-fields, where Christian patriots have laid down 
their lives, from the jungles of India, from the swamps of Africa, 
from the islands of the sea, from every lonely spot where His 
followers have passed away in suffering and service, shall the 
glorified, radiant host spring up like pyramids of flame to meet 
their coming Lord. What a vision for tear stained eyes; what 
hope for waiting hearts; what a spur to lagging service! 

It is related that on the coast of Scotland there is a high rock 
projecting into the sea. On the top of a conical beacon there is a 
lantern so arranged that from it every night there streams a 
light which is seen by fishermen far and wide. Yet there is no 
need of a keeper, for the reason that there is no burning lamp 
to fill and trim. It is a lighthouse without a lamp. The explana- 
tion is that on another island some distance off there is a light- 
house, and from a window in the tower a stream of light is pro- 
jected on a mirror in the lantern on the summit of the rock. 
These rays are reflected to an arrangement of prisms, and by their 
action are converged to a focus outside the lantern, from which 
they diverge in the necessary direction. 

Thus the Christian looks into the transfigured face of Jesus 


Shall Jesus Find Faith on Earth? 113 


Christ and catches something of that wonderful radiance as the 
lantern mirror reflects the original light. There is such a thing 
as face answering to face, the joyous light reflected toward 
another ; there is such a thing as letting the light of the coun- 
tenance shine upon a fellow mortal in distress. Each one of us is 
a candle or a lantern to someone who trusts us, and the measure 
of light we shed is the degree of our trustworthiness. 

Not what we bring in our hands, but the radiant light we shed 
around us is our excuse for living. The glow of the soul may 
be a lantern to some one, tempest-tossed, adrift, without oar, sail 
or anchor, toward the haven of safety. The emotions cultivated 
into the radiant life can be as real a thing as sunlight. To neither 
beast, bird or fish has been given a face with a light behind 
it. That light is the Redeemer’s mark of favor, separating us from 
all other creatures. The Christian life makes such a personality 
possible. It brings to young and old, rich and poor, the noblest 
conceptions in which the emotions are not only involved but de- 
veloped through the quickening power of the Holy Spirit. 

“Though time thy bloom is stealing, 
There’s still beyond his art, 


The wild-flower wreath of feeling, 
The sunbeam of the heart.” 


CHAPTER XIV. 


3) SUGGESTIBILITY. THEORY OF HYPNOTIC PHE- 
NOMENON; NORMAL AND ABNORMAL SUGGESTI- 
BILITY. DIFFERENCE BETWEEN REVIVALS OF THE 
PAST AND REVIVAL MEETINGS OF TODAY. 


The word ‘ego,’ so generally used in modern language, was 
first introduced from the Latin by Rene’ Descartes, (1596-1650 A. 
D.), a French mathematician, and sometimes called the father 
of modern philosophy. The word has since developed into other 
meanings according to theories with which it was connected. In 
philosophy it has reference to mind and body. In metaphysics 
it means the actual being of a man without the mentioning of 
the mind or soul. In modern psychology the ego represents the 
“subject” of a conscious act or state, which in substance can be 
richly and fully presented, but poorly indeed as to contents. 


In connection with this, psychologists have observed what they 
term “subconsciousness,’ whereby they mean the existence of a 
“double ego,” or double consciousness. For instance, the sudden 
recollection of something we tried to recall with all our might 
for some time. Like automatons and without presence of mind 
we often wind a watch or clock before retiring. Some instances 
have come to light where a person could add figures during a 
lively debate, or present philosophical premises and conclusions 
without premeditation in a heated argument. It is possible to 
dream the same dream the same night and continue it on another 
night. 


According to modern psychology, hypnotism seems the strong- 
est proof for the existence of the subconscious self, claiming 
through psychic or bodily means that almost any person can be 
hypnotized, directed at will, and where it is startlingly evidenced 
that the organs of motion and sense are not harmonious, but vary 
in their functions toward each other, and also where a part of 


the faculties are artificially asleep while others remain awake, 
114 


Shall Jesus Find Faith on Earth? ES 


and more awake than usual. Through suggestion the subject 
can be directed to do foolish and even criminal acts, and illusions 
and hallucinations are common. 

Post-hypnotic suggestion however, is considered the most 
singular phenomenon, wherein the subject is commanded to do 
something after three days or even weeks, which is claimed to 
have been done, and if it be a second hypnotic experience, do 
what he did in the first stage. Something wrong can be sug- 
gested and then rectified under the same spell. He can be sug- 
gested into complete aphasia, when whole life periods can be 
wiped off from the slate of his memory. He will even imagine 
himself some one else, man or beast, and imitate their charac- 
teristics. 

It is however here not said that the subject is a mere automa- 
ton, for his understanding works quickly and correctly, proving 
that unconsciousness is out of the question. The theory is that 
the hypnotic state is an artificial sleep wherein the subject is in 
sympathetic relationship, not with himself but with the hypnotist, 
and can be recalled at his will. The mysticism of hypnotism how- 
ever disappears when, for example, in general experience we are 
reminded of conditions that are parallel manifestations. It is 
common to accept suggestions from others, even as a conjurer 
with a pocket handkerchief controls the sense of vision of one 
or many persons. And where there is no so-called “medium,” 
people often laugh, cry, sing and walk in dreams. Rapport, or 
sympathetic relationship is noticeable between betrothed, friends, 
mother and child. Body, mind and soul disturbances are common, 
where the subconscious self is asserted. 

This perhaps accounts for the one-sidedness of so much of 
humanity in its neglect of the soul, a condition out of control, 
according to St. Paul, when he declared, “For we know that the 
law is spiritual: but I am carnal, sold under sin. For that which 
I do I allow not: for what I would, that do I not: but what I 
hate, that I do. If then I do that which I would not, I consent 
unto the law that it is good. Now then it is no more I that do 


116 Shall Jesus Find Faith on Earth? 


it, but sin that dwelleth in me. For I know that in me (that is, 
in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing: for to will is present with 
me: but how to perform that which is good I find not. For the 
good that 1 would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that 
I do. Now if I do that I would not, it is no more I that do it, 
but sin that dwelleth in me. I find then a law, that, when I 
would do good, evil is present with me. For I delight in the law 
of God after the inward man: but I see another law in my mem- 
bers, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into 
captivity to the law of sin which is in my members. O wretched 
man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this 
death.” (Rom. 7:14-24). 

Sin then has mesmerized the soul of man to the extent that it 
is not its own master, not even over the body, which therefore 
is but onesidedly awake and subject to abnormal suggestion. Dr. 
Amos R. Wells claims of certain persons that “somebody or 
something hypnotized them at the start. Possibly it was a fasci- 
nating ‘teacher, to whose specialty they gave themselves up, body 
and soul. Possibly it was a book, to whose ideas they became 
such stupid and absolute converts that no other ideas were hence- 
forth admitted to their minds. Possibly it was a taste, a fancy, 
a whim, indulged in blindly until it became supreme. Whatever 
it was, the subject is no longer his own, but thinks and feels, 
hears and sees, at the mere suggestion of this teacher, or book, 
or taste, habit of life, all the time believing that he is his own 
master, and scorning the insinuation that his mind and soul are 
another’s.” (Art of Ill, p. 89). 

In like manner modern “fads and isms” are cropping out every- 
where which are simply stagnated philosophies of the past, only 
in new garbs, wherein they suggest the realization of inner 
strength through so-called culture. They are false teachings which 
testify to their own inadequacy: the wickedness of so-called 
“Christian Science,’ the worthlessness of so-called “New 
Thought,” and the lie of so-called “Spiritualism.” No doubt this 
“trinity of Satan’s religions’’ have developed “many forgotten 


Shall Jesus Find Faith on Earth? 117 


truths which thereby have been recaptured,” but they are couched 
in false premises to lead astray the very elect, to whom is given 
the admonition to “avoid profane and vain babblings and op- 
positions of science falsely so-called: which some professing have 
erred concerning the faith.”’ (1 Tim. 6:20-21). 


These arch deceivers are simply using the methods of the 
sophists of the fourth and fifth centuries before the Christian 
era, who were defined by Aristotle, in the singular, as “an im- 
postrous pretender to knowledge, a man who employs what he 
knows to be fallacy, for the purpose of deceit and getting money.” 
And since the existence and power of Satan have become most 
unfashionable beliefs in our day, while teachings that would 
philosophize sin, Christ and God out of the world are common, 
it is no wonder that our times are so filled with political, moral 
and religious restlessness. It is a world peril supported by all 
types of radical, revolutionary reformers, who claim there is no 
relief from economic evils except in a universal paralysis. They 
protest against every existing form of government, both civil and 
ecclesiastical, but are blind to a description of their condition in 
the book of Proverbs, (14:12), “There is a way which seemeth 


right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death.” 
“WHO blights the bloom of the land today 
With the fiery breath of hell? 
If the Devil isn’t, and never was, won’t 
Somebody rise and tell? 
The Devil is voted not to be, 
And of course the thing is true, 
But WHO is doing the kind of work 
The Devil alone can do?” 


This well illustrates the abnormality of some methods of sug- 
gestibility evident on all sides, coming from individuals and in- 
stitutions that like Faust have sold themselves body and soul to 
the arch fiend, who uses them as his best tools of influence in 
the corruption of the world, whose triumph will end with the 
great tribulation upon all men and nations after the coming of 
Christ for His Church. 


118 Shall Jesus Find Faith on Earth? 


On the other hand, normal suggestibility is the impressing of 
a fact or truth upon the rational mind so that it will be compre- 
hended in all its aspects, not possible alone through natural per- 
sonal endowments, but infused by God’s Holy Spirit, who then uses 
the Word as a revelation to men. “For after that in the wisdom 
_of God the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased God by 
the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe. For the 
Jews require a sign, and the Greeks seek after wisdom; but we 
preach Christ crucified, unto the Jews a stumbling block, and 
unto the Greeks foolishness; but unto them (that believe) which 
are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God, and 
the wisdom of God.” (1 Cor. 1:21, 25). 

Normal suggestibility is then clearly the key to the kingdom 
of heaven. On the day of Pentecost, the Apostle Peter’s re- 
markable sermon dealt with the great historical facts of the Gos- 
pel: the heart and center of it was not himself as a medium or 
as a “vicar,” nor even that he was “the rock upon which the 
Church is built,” but the heart and center of his address was “the 
resurrection and exaltation of Jesus Christ.’”’ Here he used the 
keys entrusted to him for opening the kingdom to all Israel. And 
then, on another occasion, in the house of Cornelius, he uses the 
keys to open the kingdom for the Gentiles, henceforth calling no 
man common or unclean, but teaching all in humility to love their 
neighbors as themselves, and to show the love of Christ which 
passeth knowledge. 

Such love for souls is the magnetic power infused by the Holy 
Spirit, given into the hands of every consecrated Christian to 
suggest, to preach the Gospel of grace and salvation, proving 
that if we, in this dispensation are to preach the Gospel to any 
purpose, we must yearn for salvation more than for the things 
of this world that corrode and rust in their using. 

And not only preaching but praying is here identified with the 
keys with which the kingdom of heaven is opened to all men. Was 
suggestion ever more normal, sublime and impressive than when 
Moses prayed for his erring people: “This people have sinned 


Shall Jesus Find Faith on Earth? 119 


a great sin, and have made them gods of gold. Yet now, if Thou 
wilt forgive their sin;—and,—if not,—blot me I pray Thee, 
out of Thy book which Thou hast written.” (Ex. 32:32). We 
hear the choked accents in which the words, “If Thou wilt for- 
give their sin”; fall from the laboring breast, and then there is 
silence; but the convulsively clasped hands, the trembling lips, 
the entreating eyes are an oratory passing speech, and fill the 
long pause—till breath is given once more in the sublime self- 
sacrifice of the closing words. 

It is thus that God challenges His Church to exercise the en- 
trusted power with which she is to carry forward her mission in 
the world. What is the conception, what is the purpose of mis- 
sions but this,—‘Go ye into all the world, and preach the Gos- 
pel to every creature!” 

This also brings before us the difference between the revivals 
of the past and the revival meetings more modern. The current 
of thought and attention to a certain degree sets strongly at 
present toward Christianity, perhaps on account of the things we 
were forced to learn during the recent world war. We hear ex- 
pressions giving the appearance of constructiveness, while others 
make for conservation in religious doctrines, ideals and practices. 
This interest like a pilgrim, stands before the mighty temple of 
human reverence requesting recognition. There is amid many 
obstacles an evident movement toward universality along all lines 
of endeavor ; democracy in government, and spirituality as against 
materialism; wherein the Church must assert herself in order to 
be true to her mission. Now is her opportunity, for the restless- 
ness of our age seems to be clamoring for a revival of religion. 

During the last few years however, a distinction in revivalism, 
or, better, evangelism, has arisen which so-called specialists would 
term a distinction between the old and the new. New methods 
are being tested, novel ideas in advertising and organization, 
astounding in scope are now in vogue. Whole cities and com- 
munities are reached, large corporations, represented by em- 
ployers and employees in bodies of hundreds help fill spacious 


120 Shall Jesus Find Faith on Earth? 


tabernacles, built to seat from eight to twenty thousand persons. 
The structure, with its crude arrangements, devoid of all custom- 
ary church furnishings, appeals to the masses. The songs are 
catchy, the immense choirs are led or directed by musicians of 
ability, and, after a soul stirring sermon by a world-famed evan- 
gelist, thousands “hit the trail,’ and are reaped with a “combined 
mowing machine and binder.” It is claimed that masses of men 
and women are reached in this way upon whom the old methods 
of revivalism would make no impression. 

Striking however are the events of the old revivalism. The 
Reformation. of the Church, in the sixteenth century, which was 
marked by a return to the doctrine of justification by faith, is re- 
garded as the greatest revival since the apostolic age. The next 
great awakening occurred in England in the seventeenth century, 
in which the doctrine of the sovereignty of God was emphasized, 
followed by another in the eighteenth century from which the 
Methodist denomination originated under John and Charles Wes- 
ley. Not until after this period was the word “revival” common- 
ly used. Those revivals which took place in North America at 
about the same time were connected with the spread of Method- 
ism in England, and were called “the general awakening.” 
George Whitefield has been regarded as the forerunner of re- 
vivalism since the Reformation. Johnathan Edwards in the 
year 1734, at Northampton, Massachussetts, became his successor, 
and stimulated the use of the ordinary means of grace for the 
promotion of religion. 

In some very few instances we find the record of abnormal 
suggestibility in the work of men who tried to produce religious 
or political excitement upon large gatherings where they worked 
upon the nervous sensibilities of the people. Nothing of this na- 
ture is seen however in general evangelism, as for instance in the 
great religious movement in the year 1857. Its origin is ascribed 
in part to the thought and feeling awakened during a period of 
great commercial distress. 

This movement began primarily in Connecticut and Mas- 


Shall Jesus Find Faith on Earth? 121 


sachussetts, rapidly extending to New York and then the Middle 
and Western States. It was not generally attended by scenes 
of great excitement. A strong, calm, religious fervor was its 
general characteristic. In New York City most every evangelical 
denomination received large accessions; prayer meetings were 
held at all hours of the day and night, attended by large num- 
bers of people, mainly men actively engaged in business. More 
than two thousand communities in New York State were reported 
as partaking in this revival. It spread to England and other parts 
of the continent where its redeeming force was felt. 

In the year 1830 another mighty revival swept our beloved 
land under the able and most spiritual preaching of Charles G. 
Finney and Joel Parker, wherein man’s free agency was 
emphasized, followed by the labors of Dwight L. Moody and Ira 
Sankey in England and America in 1874, with the wondrous love 
of God as the sublime message, continuing here and there as long 
as the great evangelist lived. 

The underlying causes of these mighty movements were com- 
plex, political, industrial and religious, but the Church grasping 
the opportunity, beginning perhaps in the form of individual 
preaching and exhorting, in the tones of gospel repentance and 
saving grace, and often supported by a number in prayer, the 
phenomena spread over a wide area. That which marked the 
notable revivals of the past was the importance of prayer, the 
preaching of an unadulterated gospel, a vital contact with souls, 
faith in the power of God to save to the uttermost, and the re- 
capture of vital truths needed for the time, an act of grace on 
the part of God, in which the Holy Spirit predominated over and 
above all human endeavor. 

“Contrast all this,” said Dr. J. Wilbur Chapman, “with modern 
efforts to secure a revival. A private pamphlet prepared by a 
certain evangelist as a guide to a committee who were making 
ready for his coming, proved shockingly full of dependence on 
“business methods,” such as advertising, striking announcements, 
big posters, etc., in which he would have everything done to 


jes Shall Jesus Find Faith on Earth? 


create public furore in advance. This is the way of the world, 
and it is now fast becoming the way of the Church. We are 
getting away from dependence on ordinary means of grace, when- 
ever we do not expect any widespread blessing on the preaching 
of the simple gospel, prayer, and personal contact with souls. We 
must have several churches united and great meetings, with 
distinguished evangelists, and great choirs with far famed gos- 
pel singers, or we look for no divine outpourings. All this is 
unscriptural, unspiritual, abnormal.” (Chapman, Present-Day 
Evangelism, p. 67). 

A wider difference in the revivals of the past and the present is 
seen in a new point of view, in what is now generally termed 
“the awakening of the social consciousness,” as specifically out- 
lined on the basis of sociology by men like Dr. Josiah Strong in 
his “The Conversion of the Church” whose articles long appeared 
in certain religious magazines, and Professor Walter Rauschen- 
busch in his several books. These men claim that the Church needs 
a new conversion on the basis that Christianity brought something 
quite in opposition to conditions already fixed in social life when 
it insisted that the strong should bear the infirmities of the weak; 
that those without helpers in their loneliness and need should 
be cared for; that the fallen should be lifted; that the oppressed 
shall have justice; and the apparently unprofitable in society 
saved, made fit and developed in moral and spiritual qualities of 
worth and goodness. 

This conquest is claimed to be a struggle for moral and spirit- 
ual power; that it is essential for the Church to manifest her 
supremacy in this realm, in the interest of a truer and juster re- 
lationship among men. The traditional evangelism, however, is 
regarded as not quite meeting the situation today. It is particu- 
larly individualistic and so far does certain good, but needs to 
be supplemented by the newer social evangelism. 

The strange thing about these developments is that they are 
not new, but older than the old ones. We are but again redis- 
covering an old gospel, expecting a few modern philosophical in- 


Shall Jesus Find Faith on Earth? 123 


sertions which are foreign to the plan of God. The new country 
is simply Christ’s old kingdom of God, so long hid by traditional- 
ism, institutionalism, speculation and selfishness, and if much that 
was first is last, and much that was last is becoming first, it is in 
accordance with the teaching of our Lord while upon earth. 


But, socialism seems to be the tendency of the times, and if 
gradually all this is to be exclusive of the old unadulterated gos- 
pel with its fundamentals of faith and salvation; or if this is to 
be exclusively the twentieth century version of it, wherein we 
say, “away with God, there is no God but man; away with 
theology, give us psychology and sociology, for religion is not the 
love of God, but the love of man,” then it will be a terrible re- 
trogression in the realm of faith, thought and progress, and we 
need beware lest the arrow speed amiss, and take solemn warn- 
ing from the seer-like lines of Robert Browning: 

“Karthly incitements that mankind serve God 
For man’s sole sake—not God’s—and therefore man’s 


Till at last who distinguishes the sun 
From a mere Druid fire on a fair mount?” 


CHAPTER XV. 


4). EDUCATIONAL MEANS OF CREATING STABILI- 
TY, (a) IN THE INDIVIDUAL; (b) IN SOCIETY. 


Religion is an experience of the soul that cannot be created by 
cultural knowledge. This experiment has been tried over and 
over again in institutions of learning, as any branch of science 
might be taught, and the result has proven a general and per- 
manent aversion toward it, and mainly where the tendency has 
been to divorce philosophy from theology, in which case it is im- 
possible for either to advance. This has made so many of the 
schools more ignorant of proximate causation than the Greeks 
in the remote days of Thales. 


However, and as a means to the end that it spells obligation, 
culture as a divine gift, if properly received and infused through 
true methods of instruction, gives understanding and ability. 

“Culture’s hand has scatter’d verdure o’er the land; 
And smiles and fragrance rule serene, 
Where barren wild usurped the scene. 


And such is man—a soil which breeds 
Or sweetest flowers or vilest weeds; 


Fiowers lovely as the morning light, 

Weeds deadly as an aconite; 

Just as his heart is trained to bear 

The poisonous weed, or flow’ret fair.” (Bowring) 

A person wrongly educated is perhaps as badly off as one 
educated not at all, and generally injurious to the rest of man- 
kind; it is little better than turning out a mad dog or a wild 
beast into the streets. In these days of much false teaching 
Christian parents need to be very careful in directing with a 
weighty sense of responsibility, prayerfully, their children’s ad- 
vancement, physically, morally and mentally. Spiritual life may 
be fostered in many homes, but with a large majority the realiza- 
tion has not yet dawned that the boy or girl that bases his or 
her principles of development on the great fundamentals of Chris- 

124 


Shall Jesus Find Faith on Earth? 125 


tian doctrine has a power within to mould and strengthen the 
whole career. 

The schoolhouse, through which passes a long procession of 
American youth to receive the stamp of the instructor’s mind, is 
the gymnasium of American manhood. As with the new Chris- 
tian convert in the religion of Jesus Christ, so everything de- 
pends on the personality and type of education impressed, and 
if no supplementary work is carried out, the condition of the 
mind and the soul is liable to be worse than at the beginning. 

In religion men are valued according to what they are and 
not what they have been. The purest gold carried on a vessel 
that too late proves unseaworthy, will go to the bottom. Such 
is the course of many a fortune, be it in property or educational 
advantages. God values the man, not the cargo. He sets His 
estimation high because in a human being there is material for 
wonderful development into the highest and noblest qualities. Ifa 
baker desires to stamp a “Uneeda Biscuit,” or mould the dough 
into another form, it must be done before it enters the oven. 
Thus those who retain the child-like spirit can easily be stabilized 
if trained in the way they should go. 

The early Christians rejected the educational system of pagan- 
ism. Gradually however through the centuries it regained its 
hold on the universities and educational centers of the world, 
producing innumerable skeptics. What the home and the Church 
tried to impress indelibly upon the pliable mind has been ridi- 
culed as old-fashioned by the liberal schools. Then after gradua- 
tion these unstable young people are let loose upon the world 
in their search for an occupation and in the most complex situa- 
tion they are bewildered, and unguided; in a few years they 
will have wandered into “the far country,’ which is perfectly 
natural, and where they will pay the price of bitter experience, 
some perhaps returning to the old truths learned at “mother’s 
knee,” but for the most part there is no hope for them in a 
spiritual sense. But, who is to blame? The Judgment will 
reveal the guilty. 


126 Shall Jesus Find Faith on Earth? 


The basis of their education has been doubt, a persistency to 
question, and a resistance to Christian truth, wherein the Church 
was denied interference. It was on this account that the first 
Christians freed themselves from “the philosophy of this world.” 
It is again for this reason that the more modern Church in mat- 
ters of education has passed through an awful siege of spiritual 
declension. 


Once again the Church has seen an anti-climax in human de- 
velopment and an awakening from the dreams of evolutionary 
theories. It was no new experience in her history. The doc- 
trines of natural development dazzled modern thought, but the 
trumpets of “rationalism” caused a great stirring indeed in the 
world war between “Corsica and Galilee.” Once again God has 
laid His restraining hand upon war, frustrated the designs of 
wickedness, given light in place of darkness, and seemingly paled 
the shining star of hope in the dawning of a better day. Shall 
we then return to the weak and beggarly elements of earthly 
prosperity and agree with the majority who would build with 
them a kingdom of God? 


Shall we agree to construct another tower that shall reach to 
heaven, built upon the old foundation of human goodness, but 
not upon the divinely laid foundation of Christ? Such should 
not be our use of the new opportunity that God has given to the 
world, to repent, believe, and teach the gospel to all the human 
race. 


Culture is as aristocratic as titled nobility. Knowledge is 
power, and power of any kind is a temptation to arrogance and 
selfishness, according to the sentiment of a recent sermon by 
Dr. James I. Vance. Therein he rightly claimed that culture is 
a good thing only if based on the principle of obligation; but, if 
it is an end unto itself, if it claims no obligation toward those of 
a lower or more ignorant standard, it will prove as irresponsive 
to the individual’s piteous appeals as is the exquisite effigy on a 
sarcophagus to the tears which bedew its marble feet. 


Shall Jesus Find Faith on Earth? 127 


Rights belong to culture, but not to the exclusion of its obliga- 
tions. 


Culture is obligation. Knowledge is debt. The world is 
creditor. A talent belongs to the market-place, not in a napkin. 
Where men merely grow big in fortune, knowledge, culture, deft- 
ness, they are monstrosities. If the reservoir gives no water, 
what remains stagnates and breeds pestilence, and fouls the reser- 
voir. Force cannot achieve its purpose by conservation. 


Conversion however, is a spiritual law of force, like sponta- 
neous combustion, will burst through the strongest encasement. 
The Church of the sixteenth century would gladly have paid Dr. 
Martin Luther a fabulous sum if he had quietly remained at 
Erfurth. Savonarola was no favorite at Florence, yet these 
heroes of the faith would not spare their own lives proclaiming the 
truth in opposition to the prevailing ignorance sanctioned by the 
Church of Rome. Similarly today the problems are not all 
solved. It is an age of immense material resources, of rapidly 
increasing knowledge, of tremendous forces, both for good and 
evil, and if there are men and women without a cali to give and 
suffer ringing through their souls and stirring their very lives, 
they are slackers indeed, like the one talent man burying his 
capital in the earth. 


Christians are to enlighten the world. In it all, but not of it 
all, wherein we need not fear the satanic hand in false philos- 
ophies and teachings in erroneous doctrines, for truth cannot 
be killed, it is eternal. Our need is to translate knowledge into 
wisdom, for it is still true that “knowledge comes, but wisdom 
lingers.” 


The geologist tells us that our earth is very old, some 800,000,- 
ooo years. Does knowledge of that fact make me a better man? 
The biologist has a fascinating story of the origin of organisms. 
Does his recital put my soul in tune with the original goodness 
of God? The astronomer tells us that world building is not static 
but kinetic, not at rest but moving, dynamic. But does such in- 


128 Shall Jesus Find Faith on Earth? 


formation in itself make the more than starry wings of my soul 
unfold for higher flights into the heaven of God’s holiness ? 


Civilization has but faintly tested the truths of Christianity. 
That men are asking anew “what is Christianity ?’’—is a promis- 
ing sign, for such recognize that it is the only basis for stability. 
The conclusive evidence they behold in those whose lives are 
“epistles known and read of all men,” whose minds are lofty and 
pure, the very “salt of the earth,” “‘the Holy Catholic Church,” 
the “Bride of Christ.” Their relationship and obligation toward 
men everywhere is beautifully depicted in the inspired lines by 
Fredrick Meyer: 


“Oft the Word is on me to deliver, 

Lifts the illusion, and the truth lies bare. 
Desert or throng, the city or the river, 
Melts in a lucid paradise of air. 


Only like souls, I see the flock there-under, : 
Bound who should conquer; slaves who should be kings; 
Hearing their one hope with a vacant wonder, 

Sadly contented with a show of things. 


Then with a rush, the intolerable craving 
Shivers throughout me like a trumpet eall, 
Oh, to save some, to perish for their saving, 
Die for their life, be offered for them all.” 

Naturally then the means of grace offered by Christ through 
His Church in teaching and preaching affect every phase of 
society for good, as witnessed throughout her history. Grievous 
mistakes have been made, acknowledged and corrected from time 
to time. Through the Church, with the example of Christ ever 
before her as her ideal, men have been lifted to higher standards 
in morals and education. Where other systems have ignominious- 
ly failed, Christianity has been weighed and not found wanting. 


Summarizing some extreme sentiments along this line, pre- 
ceding the war, our thinkers most optimistically told us that 
“knowledge has become contagion; intelligence is so diffused that 
in a sense every man is his own teacher, doctor, lawyer, minister. 


Shall Jesus Find Faith on Earth? 129 


The very complexity of modern life is making illiteracy impos- 
sible. Ignorance can handle a hoe, can pick corn from a husk 
and cotton from a pod. But locomotives that travel sixty miles 
an hour, ask the engineer to go up beside Watt and master his 
inventive skill. Looms that enable one man in one year to spin 
cloth enough to clothe ten thousand men, ask for informed 
fingers. Presses that print one hundred thousand papers in a 
single night demand widely cultured intellects. Today we have 
common workmen who approach the wise men of two hundred 
years ago. Our public schools have created an enthusiasm for 
education that is pathetic. Our working people understand that 
so long as they remain ignorant, the ecclesiastical despot will op- 
press them, the political despot will spoil them of their treasures, 
the industrial despot will tyrannize over them. To escape op- 
pression the toiler becomes informed. Education is making the 
poor man’s muscles so powerful that despots cannot afford iron 
enough to reach around his wrist.” 

This visionary, pre-war conception of the power of modern 
education is too far fetched, especially where, in a secondary 
sense only, Christianity has been permitted to affect our educa- 
tional system. There is here with us a most perplexing problem, 
a bone of contention, with no solution in sight, excepting in the 
trained religious teacher. An education without the Christian re- 
ligion lacks stability, leading in the majority of cases to immoral- 
ity and crime. During the reign of Augustus, the Romans high- 
ly educated, grew rich in wealth but poorer in morals. Men de- 
sired to remain bachelors, and the women prided themselves in 
divorce. The birth rate decreased to an alarming degree. There 
was no religion. At the height of splendor and culture, Rome 
fell. The moral fiber had snapped. There was no stamina, for 
that departs with religion; and when that is gone, nothing is left 
but a vacuum or a hollow mockery. 

Just so our nation that prides itself in its excellent public school 
system, and there is none better in all the world, has room for 
great improvement, and if somehow, religion, and only that of the 


130 Shall Jesus Find Faith on Earth? 


Holy Bible, does not become a part of our curriculum, we shall go 
to ruin on the shoals of political intrigue, ecclesiastical despotism 
and irreligion. Here and there attempts are being made to link 
the public schools with the Church, credit and recognition being 
allowed for work thus done in Bible study, according to what is 
known as the North Dakota plan, the Colorado plan, the Gary 
plan. These attempts at a solution however have not met with 
general favor. Naturally this is a peculiar function, belonging to 
the Church, and because this is so, it has become a mighty ques- 
tion for agitation, seeking a solution which may never be found. 
Evidently it is only through the Sunday School that this task 
may eventually be performed, through the consecrated, trained 
teacher, a profession which today is demanding the best thought, 
plan and effort. 

In all these forward movements it is clear that the people feel 
that the secret of progress is the secret of Jesus Christ. It 
journeyed from Bethlehem across the continents, its breath sum- 
mer, its presence warmth, its footprints harvests. It is stealing 
softly into the human heart, rebuking coarseness and vice, and 
blotting out sorrow and sin. Through it laws will become just, 
rulers humane, music sweeter, homes happier, and men will be 
looking unto the hills more and more from whence cometh their 
help, the Ideal of a perfected humanity. 

The psychological experiences of the religious life therefore 
teach us that the higher the life standard, the more external help 
it needs for development. Man needs culture, knowledge, affec- 
tion, work, nature, solitude, society, art, literature and religion. 
He is however not wholly alive until he learns that “he cannot 
live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the 
mouth of God.” 

The fact remains that Christ’s atonement for sin has given 
mankind a different aspect of life, by proving in Himself that He 
is not dead, but liveth forever, the Resurrection and the Life, the 
Originator and Preserver, the All and in All. And through what- 
ever land, hamlet or heart He is permitted to journey, sweet blos- 


Shall Jesus Find Faith on Earth? 131 


soms grow in His pathway, for it is the highway of salvation 
from sin which leadeth unto life. 

The challenge therefore is that all men everywhere test the 
need of the immortal soul, together with Christ’s promises, and 
fully accept His offering of love. It is thus that “He gave Him- 
self for the Church that He might sanctify it and cleanse 
it with the washing of water by the Word in order to present 
it unto Himself without spot or wrinkle.” (Eph. 5:27). 

This ‘is the final consummation of the believer’s hope, and by 
faith even now we are able to grasp the promise made doubly 
secure to the heirs by the oath which God made to Abraham, 
“that by two immutable things, in which it was impossible for 
God to lie, we might have a strong consolation, who have fled 
for refuge to lay hold upon the hope set before us.” (Heb. 6: 
17,20). 

In the grand concert of history these are called upon to come 
in on time, to enter the larger life, prepared to see Him as He 
is, when in His appearance, the morning stars again shall sing 
together the song of the redeemed. In the meanwhile may we 
build for the soul a better residence than this body by building 
daily a better soul. 


“Build thee more stately mansions, O my soul, 

As the swift seasons roll. 

Leave thy low-vaulted past. 

Let each new temple, nobler than the last, 

Shut thee from heaven with a dome more vast, 
Till thou at last.art free, 

Leaving thine outgrown shell by life’s unresting sea.” 


SHALL JESUS FIND FAITH ON EARTH? 
IV. 
~ ACCORDING TO 
SOCIAL SCIENCE: 


SOME SOCIAL PROBLEMS OF THE PRESENT DAY 


CHAPTER XVI. 


In the process of sound study it is important to get a subject 
into its proper place among its related subjects and to see its 
ontlines in their just proportions. Almost every subject has its 
relations to every other subject, and the special student always 
needs to keep this in mind. This is necessary as to the subject 
before us, where we find that many terms have been suggested 
in place of the hybrid word “sociology,” taken from the Greek 
and the Latin, such as politics, political science, political philos- 
ophy, social psychology and social philosophy. 

The name now most generally used is “social science,” there- 
by making it a specific field of investigation, freed from com- 
plicated details, and although intimately related to psychology 
and ethics, according to Herbert Spencer in his “Principles of 
Sociology,” it stands forth as the controlling principle between 
the two, and upon which both of these are dependent. Plato, in 
his “Laws,” and “The Republic,” and Aristotle, in his “Ethics” 
and ‘Politics,’ wrote profusely on subjects related to private, 
social and political morals, thereby practically, and from a philo- 
sophical standpoint, laying the foundation for this much later 
distinct science. 


As biology may be defined as the science of life and living 
organisms, so social science may be defined as the science of hu- 
man society. It is that part of natural philosophy which deals 
with fundamental laws, origin, history, organization and develop- 


ment of human society and social phenomena, in which are re- 
132 


Shall Jesus Find Faith on Earth? 133 


vealed the laws that control human intercourse; thereby proving 
itself vitally related to ethnology, excepting that it is an advance 
from primitive society to society of a more organic type, having 
therefore a wider scope than even the science of politics, with 
which it was formerly identified. 

While the entire vast field of the social history of mankind is 
sometimes claimed for this science, its studies are chiefly con- 
fined, as the New Standard Dictionary outlines it, “to the de- 
velopment and various forms of—1. Government; embracing the 
gens, tribes, confederacy, chieftainship, monarchy, theocracy, 
democracy, etc.; 2. Marriage, a) its forms; embracing pro- 
miscuity, polygamy, polyandry and monogamy; b) its rites; and 
c) its limitations, with laws of descent and consanguinity; 3. 
Law and custom, embracing primitive ethics, the taboo, blood- 
revenge, law-tenure, caste, codes and international law.” 

This almost inexhaustive range attributed to it is perhaps 
based on the statements of the earlier scientists, for instance, 
Auguste Comte, (1798-1857), a French philosopher, who in a 
utilitaristic system, crowned with fantastic decoration, proved 
himself the Bellamy of his time, and who is, perhaps, the earliest 
writer of note to present the subject as a science, claiming it also 
to be “the religion of humanity.” 

Herbert Spencer, (1820-1903), the English contemporary of 
Comte, and the chief exponent of organic and social evolution, in 
his “Principles of Sociology” introduced the biological conception 
of development under the figure of speech which considered this 
life as a kind of “social organism,’ in which he even went so far 
as to place religion as having evolved from fear because of 
original worship of ancestral ghosts; but his biological concep- 
tion of society or life as an organism, as well as his peculiar view 
of religion, cannot be applied, and have proven to be thoughts 
much debated and by many writers discarded. 

With all the philosophizing upon the subject of sociology from 
Socrates down and throughout the middle ages, there is evident 
nevertheless a gradual aim at improvement in the theory of 


134 Shall Jesus Find Faith on Earth? 


society, as seen in the conflict between spiritual and temporal 
forces, comparable to the unrest in Egypt at the time of Moses, 
as well as that of the age of the prophets, then in the period of 
the Reformation, which gave impetus to the rennaisance, similar 
to the time of the incarnation of God in Christ Jesus. These 
movements developed opposing ideas between old and new con- 
ceptions, eventually bringing forth a further development in the 
politico-religious upheaval in the seventeenth century, resulting 
in the writings of Locke, Huxley and Kant, with their concep- 
tions of society as dependent on humane and just laws of the 
State, through which they hoped to gain increased liberties for 
all classes. 

Strange indeed that all these wide ranging views finally culmi- 
nated in the twin theories of Darwin and Haeckel, with their 
acknowledged help to man for the better understanding of his 
handicaps and to adjust his endeavors to ascertained laws; silent, 
however, as to the ultimate values of faith and service. 

During and after this period sociology was often confused with 
socialism. Morris Hillquit, a leader among the socialists, in his 
widely read book on “Socialism in Theory and Practice,’ (p. 
211), claims that “the ultimate aim of the socialist movement is 
to convert the material means of production and distribution into 
the common property of the nation, as the only radical and 
effectual cure of all social evils.” From this line of thought and 
as Hillquit generally sets forth the principles of socialism, it is 
noticeable that the fundamental principles of socialism belong 
not to social science nor to economics, but are metaphysical. Such 
fallacies as the primary principle of the equal rights of all men; 
the insisting on industry being the sole gauge of emolument, and 
the materialistic estimate of all existence, as though man’s soul 
were too dreamy a thing to be reasoned about, are fatal; for 
wrong principles cannot produce constructive and curative meas- 
ures. 

Nor is the theory of universal compulsory labor a natural ora 
salutary conception ; for it gets in the way of the culture of the 


Shall Jesus Find Faith on Earth? ee 


higher faculties, and simply converts all society into one great 
productive union, productive only in the gross material sense; 
with materialism, pure and simple, as the god of the new 
socialism, warfare on Christianity being its negative religion, and 
the adoration of human equality its positive. 

Socialism is therefore a theory pure and simple of how society 
ought to be arranged, while social science on the other hand de- 
scribes all the facts, laws, and forces of society, with the purpose 
of correcting its evils on the basis of the laws of regeneration, 
righteousness and love. Instead of social science being the same 
as socialism, or in any way being responsible for it, it may be 
said that it affords the only complete answer to it, and remedy 
for it, at least from a scientific point of view. 

“The highest reach of our social nature is that we may have 
fellowship with God. Still this science concerning man’s high- 
est nature is the latest born of all the sciences. Fifty years ago 
wise men began to systematize the facts of society, to study man 
as a Socius, and the many combinations he has formed with his 
fellows. Theology was old, astronomy was gray when sociology 
was born. In 1883 there was not a chair of sociology in any uni- 
versity or college in the world. In 1883 the first book on Dynamic 
Sociology was published. Though late in birth it has grown 
strong through the studies of many keen thinkers and great lovers 
of their kind.” (Schenck, Sociology and Bible, p. 9). 

For some years preceding the world war, an attempt was made 
to unite this science with the teaching of Christian ethics, giving 
the impression that there had until now been two separate classes 
of principles of goodness and mercy. Truth is never at war with 
truth. Jesus Christ is The Light who enlightened the world 
when it was darkest and throughout the ages. It was His com- 
ing alone that revolutionized not only religion but society, and 
gave false philosophy such a proof of its fallacy that it either 
had to go out of business or change its principles. 

Since then a vital change has come over the world. A war 
considered the most destructive in history has ended, leaving it 


136 Shall Jesus Find Faith on Earth? 


desperate and gasping. Men are now clamoring for a social re- 
construction, and with an incomparable spirit of philanthropy. 
are asserting that “right and proper, just and Christian are the 
efforts being put forth by organizations and individuals to alle- 
viate the sufferings, to lighten the burdens, and to care for those 
who have been broken and bruised in life’s struggle. By all 
means place ambulances at the foot of every cliff to take care of 
stricken humanity, but before all other work, construct fences 
around precipices so as to prevent men and women from falling. 
Palhative philanthropy is good, but preventive philanthropy is far 
better. The day of the dole is past. Dollars do not reach the 
heart of the social problem. Constructive and curative measures 
are demanded. Many of the city’s ills can be permanently cured, 
and the business of Christians is to remove the causes which 
produce the socially diseased.’”’ (Montgomery, Christ’s Social 
Remedies, p. 397). 

What a beautiful appeal for benevolence. Much of the state- 
ment is commendable; yet, if “the salt of the earth” can scrip- 
turally assert itself to such an extent as to remove the causes 
which produce the socially diseased, it must be a new type of 
exegesis. Dr. Montgomery’s book reads well, as do all the 
modern works along this line, but they all seem too theoretical. 
How and by whom shall the principles of modern social science 
be applied? We are now told that it is the duty of the Chris- 
tians. For centuries, on the basis of Christian ethics, there has 
been an aim at this result through the medium of proclaiming 
and practicing insistently the Gospel, which included the social 
principles of Christ as opposed to a so-called “social gospel,” 
wherein the fundamental doctrines of Christianity are discarded. 

On the other hand, if the purpose of this new movement is to 
substitute a religion of good works for the basis of true faith, 
then is this a coat of a different color, for a true gospel of grace 
is inseparable from a gospel of good works. It is all well and 
good to know intimately the construction of society, its anatomy, 
its social organs and functions, its psychology, its maladies and 


Shall Jesus Find Faith on Earth? 187 


therapeutic remedies, all that can be known of the facts of 
scientific investigation and study. These facts are all useful in 
attaining a clear view of social science, but the inner life on 
which all depends cannot be overlooked without defeating the 
very purpose and end of. the subject under consideration. 

“It is thus that social science is made prominent in speeches, 
articles and books, as though it embodied an entirely unknown 
and new proposition. Those who have come to the end of their 
resources in the conduct of church work on purely individualistic 
lines have made use of this convenient phrase to stir new interest 
and arouse latent energy. It gives new hope and promises a 
course of activity attractive and perhaps lucrative. Social science 
is thus far gaining expresston in surveys of various sorts and in 
columns of social service counsel. There has been developed the 
social service expert, who is prepared to talk learnedly and to 
undertake in the field of any church or in any city a survey of 
religious or vice conditions. He will show any pastor why it is 
his church is not growing. He will make clear what is to be 
done, except the really essential thing, how to have a genuine 
awakening and how to develop the social conscience so that 
it may become the controlling center of a community, or how to 
put in effect his own advice.” (Clericus, Constructive Character 
of Social Service). 

Only too true, and thus at the outset our position in the mat- 
ter must also be understood. With all due respect for the ad- 
herents and converts of this new science, and all the books writ- 
ten and being read upon this subject, the fact nevertheless stands 
absolute, that the Church cannot scripturally federate with the 
world in its efforts for civic righteousness, social betterment and 
world regeneration by any other method than the Gospel of Jesus 
Christ. 

The apostolic admonition to “prove all things and hold fast 
that which is good,” places us here in line with such scriptural 
men as R. E. Neighbour, who in his “The Folly of Federation Be- 
tween the Church and the World,” clearly sets forth seven 


138 Shall Jesus Find Faith on Earth? 


reasons why the Church cannot join with the world in efforts for 
these things: 1. because their standards of righteousness and 
of right living are distinct and opposite; 2. because there is no 
biblical sanction for such federation either in the lives or in 
the teachings of Jesus Christ and the Apostles; 3. because the 
mission of the Church is to call out of the world a people for 
Christ’s sake; 4. because the Church is suffering unspeakably 
by world alliance; 5. because the work is not of God, and is 
destined to certain failure; 6. because federation is condemned 
by the Word of God, and is an evident preparation for the com- 
ing of Antichrist; 7. because the heads of the Church and the 
world are distinct and opposite.” 

How carefully and clearly then the distinction must be defined. 
How much must be excluded which some writers include and 
consider important. If the movement as supported by many able 
men is merely a philosophical experiment, it will utterly fail, re- 
maining a fad or fancy, having a selfish purpose in view. 

Supporting the positive social science writers, teachers and 
preachers, presented not to the exclusion of the Gospel of Jesus 
Christ, we find their position digested in the following declara- 
tion: “The influence upon the development of civilization of the 
wider conception of duty and responsibility to one’s fellow men 
which was introduced into the world with the spread of Chris- 
tianity can hardly be overestimated. The extended conception of 
the answer to the question—Who is my Neighbor ?—which has 
resulted from the characteristic doctrines of the Christian re- 
ligion, a conception transcending all the claims of the family, 
group, state, nation, people or race, and even all the interests 
comprised in any existing order of society, has been the most 
powerful agent which has ever acted on society.” (Kidd, Encl. 
Bripesociies20)" 

Men of this type discern aright and never attempt to divorce 
good works from true faith. They hold fast to the primary prin- 
ciple that we are justified from all things only through Jesus 
Christ, having redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of 


Shall Jesus Find Faith on Earth? 139 


sins according to the riches of His grace. This scriptural principle 
is also inseparably connected with the fact that good, worthy, ac- 
ceptable works on the basis of sacrifice are the natural result of 
a stabilized faith. Not that works can save or justify before 
God; though they do justify us before men, as declared by the 
apostle, “that being justified by His grace, we should be made 
heirs according to the hope of eternal life. This is a faithful say- 
ing, and these things affirm constantly, that they which have be- 
lieved in God might be careful to maintain good works. These 
things are good and profitable unto men.” (Titus 3:7-8). 

With this fact clearly defined, and the field of social service 
accurately surveyed, our position must naturally be to proceed 
from the view-point of the Christian, for, said the famous Dr. 
Chalmers in his “Modesty of True Science,” p. 83, “there is a 
superficial philosophy which casts the glare of a most seducing 
brilliancy around it; and spurns the Bible, with all the doctrine, 
and all the piety of the Bible away from it; and has infused 
the spirit of Antichrist into many of the literary establishments 
of the age; but it is not the solid, the profound, the cautious spir- 
it of that philosophy, which has done so much to ennoble the 
modern period of our world; for the more that this spirit is 
cultivated and understood, the more will it be found in alliance 
with that spirit, in virtue of which all that exalteth itself against 
the knowledge of God, is humbled, and all lofty imaginations are 
cast down, and every thought of the heart is brought into captivity 
of the obedience of Christ.” 

Upon this foundation we are prepared to study some social 
problems of the present day as evident in cities of five thousand 
or more inhabitants, from the view-point of the Christian. 


CHAPTER XVII. 
1). A COMPREHENSIVE DEFINITION OF SOCIETY. 


“Man, in society, is like a flow’r 

Blown in its native bud. ’Tis there alone 

His faculties expanded in full bloom 

Shine out, there only reach their proper use.” (Cowper). 

Society in a general sense is made up of three distinct stages; 
savagery, barbarism and civilization. Next to savagery, which 
is the crudest, rudest and most primitive form of human life, still 
prevalent in isolated parts of the world, we find that a barbarian, 
according to Homer, was one who could not speak the language 
of the Greeks. Later Plato divided the human race into Hellenes 
and Barbaroi. 

The word ‘barbaroi’ is of unknown origin, meaning mainly a 
babel of tongues, upon which the Greeks in the consciousness of 
their superior intelligence looked with disdain, as opposed to 
their standard of life’s conception. Beginning with Plautus the 
Romans accepted the appellation attributed by the Greeks, but 
under Augustus, when Rome became a world power, the name 
was applied to all foreign tribes. It represented those peoples 
that dwelt in the recesses of deep forests, and those who in the 
migration of nations came forth in swarms to combat with the 
then known civilization, the followers of Alaric, Attila, Genseric 
and Odoacer, that overspread the territories of the Roman 
Empire. In modern times the name signifies whatever is savage, 
uncivilized or ignorant. 

On the other hand by civilization is meant the more advanced, 
cultural stage of society in contrast with savagery and barbarism, 
when men as individuals redressed their own wrongs. Philoso- 
phers preceding the French Revolution conceived civilization as a 
form of agreement opposed to the state of nature, by yielding 
obedience and support to the State. 

The word ‘society’ has reference to the permanent changes 


in the condition and arrangements of the life of man as effected 
140 


Shall Jesus Find Faith on Earth? 141 


by his own intelligence and exertions which make up human 
civilization. It is the artificial half of the good that men enjoy. 
Nature has been most generous in her gifts; our own powers of 
contrivance give the rest. Genius in the sense of intellectual 
originality is the cause, and civilization the effect. 

F. P. Guizot, (1787-1874), in his “History of Civilization in 
Europe” claims that “on the whole, when we survey the state of 
society at the end of the crusades, we will find that the move- 
ment tending to dissolution and dispersion had ceased, and had 
been succeeded by a movement in a contrary direction, a move- 
ment of centralization. All things tended to mutual approxima- 
tion ; small things were absorbed in great ones, or gathered round 
them. 

“Such in my opinion, are the real effects of the crusades; on 
the one hand the extension of ideas and the emancipation of 
thought; on the other, a general enlargement of the social sphere, 
and the opening of a wider field for every sort of activity; they 
produced at the same time, more individual freedom, and more 
political unity. They tended to the independence of man and the 
centralization of society. 

“Many inquiries have been made respecting the means of civili- 
zation which were directly imported from the East. It has been 
said that the great discoveries which, in the course of the four- 
teenth and fifteenth centuries, contributed to the progress of 
European civilization, such as the compass, printing and gun- 
powder, were known in the East, and that the crusades brought 
them into Europe. This is true to a certain extent, though 
some of these assertions may be disputed. But what cannot be 
disputed is this influence, this general effect of the crusades upon 
the human mind on the one hand, and the state of society on 
the other. They drew society out of a very narrow road, to 
throw it into new and infinitely broader paths; they began that 
transformation of the various elements of European society into 
governments and nations, which is the characteristic of modern 
civilization.” 


142 Shall Jesus Find Faith on Earth? 


Thus Guizot defines society, and his view is generally accepted, 
to the extent as we read his works further, that we are to include 
in civilization “the improvement of man both socially and in his 
individual capacity.”” However, when we look to the pages of 
history and perceive what this old world has passed through up, 
to the latest world war, with the fall of many governments and 
empires, much of our boasted improvement, both material and 
institutional, lies in ashes. The most debatable subject, there- 
fore, is the question whether there is improvement, whether “the 
world is growing better,” as so many of our so-called optimists 
and evolutionists blindly declare it is with glowing emphasis. 
The question seems answerable only in the words of Alfred Ten- 
nyson: 


“Through the ages one insistent purpose runs 
And the thoughts of God are ripening 
With the progress of the suns.” 


The improvement of society is far from the truth when we 
reasonably take into consideration the vices of civilization and 
try to distinguish these from its virtues. The matter would be 
very much simplified and nearer the truth if “aiming at improve- 
ment” were distinguished from really achieving it as it is often 
boastfully declared that “this 1s the most wonderful standard of 
civilization the world has ever known.” 

It cannot be denied that the many inventions and discoveries 
that have entered into modern life have raised society to a higher 
level, but can these be the evidences that men are enjoying a vital 
improvement? If these were introduced with a “view to improve- 
ment,” the idea of civilization as to the modern degree of society 
will then present a definite conception of fact, otherwise the 
whole question must be left open for a discussion wherein we 
will encounter much difference of opinion. 

Distinguishing between the vices and virtues of civilization and 
at the same time showing the real purpose of this state of society 
from the premises of social science, is well illustrated by Emile 
Souvestre, (1806-1854), a French journalist and essayist, in his 


- 


Shall Jesus Find Faith on Earth? 143 


“Reflections of the Social Body,’ wherein he exclaims: 

“What a wonderful order there is in all human labor. Whilst 
the husbandman furrows his land, and prepares for everyone 
his daily bread, the town artisan, far away, weaves the stuff in 
which he is to be clothed; the miner seeks underground the iron 
for his plough; the judge takes care that the law protects his 
fields ; the tax-comptroller adjusts his private interests with those 
of the public; the merchant occupies himself in exchanging his 
products with those of distant countries; the men of science and 
of art add every day a few horses to this ideal team, which draws 
along the material world, as steam impels the gigantic trains of 
our iron roads. 

“There is nothing like this in the state of nature. No one 
reaps, manufactures, fights, or thinks for him; he is nothing to 
anyone. Yet, notwithstanding this, the other day, disgusted by 
the sight of some vices in detail, I cursed civilization and almost 
envied the life of the savage. One of the infirmities of our na- 
ture is always to mistake feeling for evidence, and to judge of the 
season by a cloud or a ray of sunshine. 

“Was the misery, the sight of which made me regret a savage 
life, really the effect of civilization? Must we accuse society of 
having created these evils, or acknowledge on the contrary, that 
it has alleviated them ?. Could the women and children who were 
receiving the coarse bread from the soldier hope in the desert 
for more help and pity? That dead man whose forsaken state I 
deplored, had he not found by the cares of an hospital, a coffin, 
and the humble grave where he was about to rest? Alone, far 
from men, he would have died like the wild beast in his den, and 
would be serving as food for vultures. 

“These benefits of human society are shared then by the most 
destitute. But cannot society give more? Who doubts it? 
Errors have been committed in this distribution of tasks and 
workers. Time will diminish the numbers of them; with new 
lights a better division will arise.” 

Souvestre here beautifully exemplifies the humanitarian pur- 


144 Shall Jesus Find Faith on Earth? 


pose of civilization, to the enjoyment of all concerned. Society 
looked upon in this light evidences also several departments that 
have helped make it what it is. The industrial arts and inven- 
tions which have been discovered are bringing the material re- 
sources of the earth to advantage. The governments of nations 
have passed from stage to stage until now democracy is con- 
sidered the ideal of all peoples. The art of intercourse as seen in 
the improvement of the telephone, telegraph, wireless telegraphy, 
cable, and that of speedy conveyance, all have shortened distances 
to the extent that they are looked upon as vital necessities. The 
growth of the moral and spiritual influence of the Christian 
Church has made inroads upon the life of our communities, cities, 
and the world, so that localities are valued according to the stand- 
ard of life there lived. The progress of science in its several 
departments is the wonder of the age, and with literature and 
general edification holding pace, all of these amply show forth 
what society is and the standard of its attainment along cultural 
lines. 

How rarely people stop to consider how much more com- 
fortable we now live than men did in the days of old. What 
benefits are ours in comparison to those of even the Czsars. The 
enlarging sense of obligation to all mankind is changing the 
character of our aspirations as a people, and is expressing itself 
in plans to secure equal rights to all, to bring about a fairer 
distribution of wealth, to conserve the natural resources for all 
citizens, in industrial, political and social affairs. All this argues 
well for the betterment of the world, and it is thus acknowl- 
edged, providing we see only this side of the canvas. Reducing 
civilization then to its simplest terms, society is built around five 
great institutions :—the Home—social; the State—political; the 
Shop—commercial; the School—educational; and the Church— 
religious. 

Thus the application of the Christian new commandment to 
this wide field and range of experience is eclipsing all former 
awakenings in history. To one who studies the individual as 


Shall Jesus Find Faith on Earth? 145 


moved to be a brother to his fellow men, and society as being 
leavened by this spirit, many things important for men to know 
are clamoring to be spoken. Religion for such has ceased to 
be the exclusive interest of churches. It is no longer a single 
factor in society. It is life itself. It gives a mission to every 
family. It dignifies all honorable business. It imparts a vision 
to politics, and it awakens in each one the question, “how can I 
best serve my fellow men?” 

But whence this humanitarianism, this new teaching, this new 
spirit of physical, ethical and psychical development? Is it the 
result of mere philosophizing? Can the science of sociology here 
claim originality? Is it a natural sequence of society to develop 
and practice such principles of its own accord? 

W. L. Alexander argues well, when he says that “the writings 
of many great thinkers of the ages are still in our libraries and 
we call them classics. We value them for what we think they 
are worth. But over whom do they rule? By whom are their 
authors reverenced and worshipped? We may delight our in- 
tellects with the hard keen reasoning of an Aristotle, or our souls 
with the sublime conceptions and dulcet words of a Plato; but 
what man in his senses would now profess himself an Aristotelian 
or Platonist? Their power has long since passed away; their 
scepters are broken, and to most men, even in civilized countries, 
they are nothing but names. 

But Jesus Christ is still in our midst as a living power. Men 
believe in Him, receive His teachings, confide their highest in- 
terests into His hands, love Him with an all-mastering love, and, 
if need be, are ready to sacrifice even life itself for His sake. 
And if we have yet to expect a further development of thought 
which is to supersede Christianity, why has it been so long in 
coming? Centuries have passed, and yet no sign of its approach 
is to be seen. Is not the world’s last and only impetus and sal- 
vation Jesus Christ, or, without Him a dark and hopeless noth- 
ing?” 

Can it be possible that all the aspirations of men with this “aim 


146 Shall Jesus Find Faith on Earth? 


at improvement” on the part of civilization in general as its im- 
petus, are so much dependent upon this divine personage? Who 
otherwise gave it this tendency? Would it be possible to sup- 
pose a Christless world? <A friend once dreamed such a pos- 
sibility. In the city of Rome he saw representatives of all na- 
tions entering St. Peter’s Cathedral, and followed. When the 
church was filled and the ringing of the chimes had ceased, a 
man arose and declared the purpose of the gathering: “The 
majority of us no longer care to call ourselves Christians, but 
hereafter shall walk in the light of our own reason.” This ex- 
pression received great applause, and with one accord they arose 
and trampled on the symbols of the old faith from altar and 
walls. 

After the excitement had abated itself, a side door opened and 
a plain looking person entered. Instantly all seemed to feel that 
it was the Lord Himself; astonished at His presence then, He 
said in a confident and loving voice, “I care not to trespass on 
humanity. If no longer desired, I shall withdraw, but also shall 
take with me that which the world has received through me and 
mine own, who by taking up their cross, followed me in dis- 
cipleship, evangelism and service,’—and disappeared. 

An indescribable feeling swayed all that were present. They 
quietly left the cathedral. Outside however, they gradually 
noticed where once stood stately churches, hospitals, asylums, all 
were gone. In one place were many sick upon beds without 
covering. Doctors, nurses and attendants were missing. In vain 
did the sufferers in the side streets and slums wait for those who 
were so regular to succor and help. Every thing had changed. 
Barbarism and general immorality had gained the upper hand. 
The situation became so serious that the dreamer awakened with 
fear and trembling to find that it was only a dream. 

All light of the world was originally light of the sun, and the 
earth is wholly dependent on the sun. As the earth would be 
dark, cold and dead if the sun should fail to shine, so it would be 
if Jesus Christ the Redeemer and Lord should suddenly with- 


Shall Jesus Find Faith on Earth? 147 


draw His power and His love. How empty, comfortless, ter- 
rible and full of tribulation would life be without Him, for every 
thing truly good, noble and generous, is the fruit of the evangel 
of Jesus Christ; therefore— 


“Heaven forming each on other to depend, 

A master, or a servant, or a friend, 

Bids each on other for assistance call, 

Till one man’s weakness grows the strength of all. 
Wants, frailties, passions, closer still ally 

The common interest, or endear the tie. 

To these we owe true friendship, love sincere, 
Each home-felt joy that life inherits here.” (Pope). 


CHAPTER XVIII. 


2). NATURE’S TEACHING. 


There is also a negative side to society which as a state of 
nature is foreign to domestication or civilization. It is the sum 
of native attributes or conditions as opposed to cultivation, law 
and order, holding the much boasted-of “improvement of society” 
in leash. 


God never gave the moral law in order to exact the utmost 
farthing from His subjects, nor is He a wilful tyrant compelling 
obedience to His will. He is a God of mercy and love. Every 
requirement of His is possible of fulfillment on the basis of con- 
science and reason. Yet men dared rebel, questioning His mo- 
tive, thereby bringing upon themselves that judgment for sin 
which is death. Then the Judge Himself became “Love Incar- 
nate” and took upon Himself the judgment of the Law, a con- 
demned criminal, in whom there was no sin, an outcast upon a 
wooden cross, patiently thereby restraining the punishment due 
those who through His sacrifice might by repentance and faith be 
saved to fulfil the chief end of their being, to glorify and enjoy 
Him forever. Yet, on the other hand there are many concerning 
whom the proverb declares, “He that sinneth against Me wrong- 
eth his own soul: all they that hate Me love death.” (Prov. 8: 
30). 

And the same wilfulness and disobedience on the part of man 
are true in reference to social law and order, as evidenced on 
the records of criminality, the testimony of science, the ghastly 
spectacle of moral depravity and the hideous throngs of the lazar 
house, the asylum and the penitentiary. “Challenging marriage, 
reacting from all social forms of religion, never satisfied and 
never still, expressing itself indifferently through music, philos- 
ophy, letters and life, this spirit of revolt has roamed, an unquiet 


guest, through the stern ways of modern civilization: and where 
148 


Shall Jesus Find Faith on Earth? 149 


is the man or woman who has never listened to its lure?’ (Scud- 
der, Socialism and Character, p. 27). 

Its spreading contagion is alarming. We read it daily in glar- 
ing headlines. History never recorded such experiences as those 
through which we are passing. It is momentous, gigantic, criti- 
cal; we stand aghast, we wonder what will come next. 

“The pernicious principle of the supremacy of force over right, 
elevated into a body of moral doctrine, the inspiring idea of the 
Nietzschian philosophy, has worked to its full extent, so as to 
arouse into mischievous activity the savage instincts slumbering 
in the minds of the many. Recourse to violence, intolerance of 
control, the rebellion of the ruled, exacerbations of the egoistic 
passions, refusal to yield where interests conflict, all emerge as 
the fatal and ultimate consequences toward which we have long 
been ignorantly drifting. 

“Everywhere idealistic tendencies are carped at, humane pre- 
cepts ridiculed, disinterestedness scorned, the struggle for life ac- 
centuated. Our old romantic ideals are tied up into bundles and 
slightly labeled “sentimentalism.” And this spirit of disdain, 
which in the individual lets loose the evil passions, has its in- 
evitable reflection in international life. Among private indi- 
viduals, as among nations, material interest is assigned as the 
sole possible motive for every act. Legal formulae become a de- 
ceptive cloak for the claims of the weak, and the strong may 
tear up or remodel them according to their own will. And the 
majority of minds, imbued with this sinister teaching, fail to per- 
ceive, in their impulsive indignation, that the synthesis of it is to 
be found in the old Jesuitical maxim, ‘The end justifies the 
means.” (DeMendonca, Moral Aspects European War, p. 13). 

In this state, society, instead of getting better, is depicted as a 
patient in need of a serious operation. The body politic rests 
upon the operating table, in the center of the dissecting room, sur- 
rounded by eminent surgeons. Are they ready to proceed? In 
modern social and political life there is indeed a great deal to 
cut out. Who will apply the scalpel? In politics on account of 


150 Shall Jesus Find Faith on Earth? 


the enormous changes through which we have passed, brought on 
by the blasting of principle and right through the greatest slaugh- 
ter of the ages, we might say that the entry of a man or party for 
the help needed would require a prognosis, a foreknowledge, or 
the sense to see where others cannot. 


Then comes the platform on which the candidates are to stand, 
which can be likened to the diagnosis. Then comes the most 
delicate part of the operation. It is evidently much easier for 
surgeons to get at the truth than for that man or set of men who 
wander forth seeking in an inquiry of social problems to find the 
truth. Thus also, instead of the possibility of administering an 
anesthetic, this social body politic is evidencing symptoms. of 
what might be called “violent and prolonged hysteria.” It is 
universal, and there seems to be no way to stop it. The methods 
now being used may be likened to those of quacks and charlatans, 
who kill more people than they relieve. 


This situation is regarded as a moral and spiritual menace if 
the trend of the times be morally considered, in which it will be 
noticed that it is supported by avowed radical revolutionary re- 
formers, almost wholly confined to working men who have lost 
hope in all methods of relief from economic evils except in the 
universal paralysis of trade and industry by means of the uni- 
versal strike. It aims at every existing form of government both 
civic and ecclesiastical. These are “signs of the times” of which 
prophecy warns us to take heed for they are significant. 


It will be seen then that the causes of crime are numerous and 
complex. It is probable that the most of these arise from the 
increasing concentration of population because of the centraliza- 
tion of industry. What Guizot rightly once so highly praised 
might not appeal so forcibly to him now. In all nations where 
the towns are increasing at the expense of the country, crime has 
a distinct tendency to grow rapidly. In large centers of popula- 
tion the physical and industrial conditions of life are in highly 
defective state, and a large degenerate class springs up, most of 


Shall Jesus Find Faith on Earth? 151 


which is unsuited for industrial occupations. Many members of 
this class resort to a career of crime. 

“It was at one time not unusual to assume that poverty is the 
principal source of crime: but in recent years considerable dif- 
ference of opinion has arisen upon the subject. Garofolo main- 
tained that the well-to-do, however, in proportion to their num- 
bers, are just as criminally disposed as the poor and needy; and 
it must be admitted that both Garofolo and Ferri, are able to pro- 
duce many striking facts and arguments in support of this con- 
tention. 

“It was formerly a prevalent idea that ignorance is a very im- 
portant factor in the production of crime; but almost all investi- 
gators in the department of criminal statistics are hostile to this 
belief, claiming that instruction in reading and writing has little 
or no effect in elevating the character and diminishing the annual 
volume of crime. The most that is admitted by the majority of 
competent inquirers is that education sometimes determines the 
form which crime will assume; the educated criminal, they main- 
tain, seeks to attain his ends by fraud rather than violence. 

“The only kind of education which possesses undoubted value 
from a moral point of view is the education of the character, 
which however is much more the product of imitation than of 
precept. On the whole subject of the relations between educa- 
tion and conduct, Goethe goes to the root of the matter when he 
says that “everything is pernicious which liberalizes the mind, 
but gives no mastery over ourselves.” ” (Morrison, Factors in 
Producing Crime). 

We may get nearer the cause and effect of this existing present 
state of nature and recklessness by noticing the evident and de- 
plorable fact that the Home, the Public School and the Church, 
the very foundation stones and bulwarks of a nation, have lost 
their grip upon the children of men, they preferring rather and 
particularly, anything else than “The House of the Lord,” which 
as an institution meant so much to our forefathers and made the 
nation what it later became. 


L352 Shall Jesus Find Faith on Earth? 


Why is it that almost every scheme of education thus far 
evolved has proven inadequate to the saving of the youth? What 
does it mean that every new text-book on education is giving at- 
tention more and more to moral and religious education? It 
means, that in the opinion of those who know, our school system 
has failed in one thing, the most essential thing, it has failed in 
the vital problem of saving the youth. This sad confession that 
runs all through recent pedagogical literature, is it not confirmed 
by our Juvenile Courts, the average age of our prostitutes, the 
age and education of our criminals, the moral corruption dis- 
covered in one school community after another and our despair- 
ing appeal to the “new eugenics” to help us do what seems far 
beyond us at present? 

Hundreds of thousands of young men and women reared in 
Christian or nominally Christian homes have been received into 
the bosom of the Church by baptism, and passing through the 
Sunday School have enjoyed the instruction for a season, but, 
instead of uniting with the Church completely, on confession of 
their faith, they have gradually drifted away and become finally 
lost to the communion. Where shall the blame be laid but on the 
homes. It is indeed a glaring problem, and if the home and the 
Church have lost their grip upon our youth, then naturally the 
tendency in morals will be degrading, and education is out of 
the question. 

In a ministerial conference a prominent clergyman recently 
deplored the fact that “we are hearing of change and decay in 
churches once towers of strength and benevolence; of great com- 
monwealths whose native stock has been submerged by floods 
of foreign immigration; of a New England that is rapidly becom- 
ing a New France; of one strong church of pure Pilgrim tra- 
ditions which found it necessary to call a pastor who could speak 
Swedish. Cape Cod is now largely Portuguese. Rhode Island 
has but four rural churches which are self-supporting. The de- 
cline of piety in the homes of many a godly line is evident. There 
is a diminishing supply of young men for the ministry. The 


Shall Jesus Find Faith on Earth? 153 


Lord’s Day has become secularized, finding men and women pre- 
occupied with interests other than those of the Church and the 
Kingdom. And if we know anything of the course of Christian 
history we should count it not strange that we come often to the 
Hill of Difficulty. Our task has inherent obstacles. It is the 
heaviest of all tasks. It calls us to the very summit of human 
endeavor. At the same time it throws us back upon God as does 
no other task.” 

Taking a world view of the situation, we notice that we are 
approaching the two thousandth year of the Christian era, and 
lately more than one half of the people of the globe tried to de- 
stroy each other’s property and cut each other’s throats. Of the 
sixteen hundred millions of the inhabitants, eight hundred mil- 
lions were involved in the war of Europe and America. And 
now the war which was to “make the world safe for democracy” 
is over, but the perils of democracy seem as great, if not greater 
than they were previously to the great conflict. The fears that 
free institutions may be attacked from without seem diminished ; 
but the danger that they will break down through the war of 
misunderstandings and passions within each community is great- 
er than ever. 

Dr. A. T. Hadley of Yale University declared, “this is no new 
experience, the democracies of the past have had more to fear 
from foes within than from foes without. Give political free- 
dom to a group of men who are not accustomed to govern them- 
selves and farsighted management of public affairs becomes an 
impossibility from the start. If such men remain under the 
sway of the religion of their fathers, the name of liberty becomes 
a cloak for the excesses of fanaticism. 

“Tf they break loose from that sway they are led to the yet 
worse excesses of anarchism. Self-government is impossible 
without intelligent unselfishness. The widening of the course of 
study in our public schools has not been accompanied by a cor- 
responding increase in political wisdom. Tiwo-thirds of the 
things which are taught in our high schools and colleges have lit- 


154 Shall Jesus Find Faith on Earth? 


tle effect in making people better citizens. The example of Ger- 
many shows how a nation can develop professional efficiency to 
the very highest degree and yet miss altogether the habits and 
powers of mind which are essential to political freedom. Vision 
and judgment are the things that make a people great and that 
qualify a man to be a leader among freemen.” 

Similarly Theodore Roosevelt voiced his sentiments, when he 
said, “We have founded our republic on the theory that the 
average man will, as a rule, do the right thing, that in the long 
run the majority will decide for what is sane and wholesome. If 
our fathers were mistaken in that theory, if ever the times be- 
come such that the mass of the people do what is unwholesome, 
what is wrong, then the republic cannot stand, I care not how 
good its laws, I care not what marvelous mechanism its constitu- 
tion may embody. Back of the laws, back of the administra- 
tion, back of the system of government lies the man, lies the 
average manhood of our people, and in the long run we are go- 
ing to go up or down, according as the average standard of our 
citizenship does, or does not, wax in growth of grace.” 

Thus we find men of public experience and farsightedness see- 
ing conditions as they are, and will be, if they so continue from 
the state of nature. What institution can help us? Where is 
the philosophy, science or religion that can save us from this 
awful bondage of sin and corruption, tending toward individual, 
social, national and international ruin? 

On the front of our canvas we painted in glowing colors the 
positive, wonderful “improvement” of society in its civilized 
state. We also turned the picture toward the wall and have seen 
its reverse side, its negative, natural side, whereon we saw the de- 
velopment of the mightiest problems that confront us as a people 
and a nation. It is under three heads of these that we wish to 
consider them, to place the blame for conditions as they are if we 
can, and search for a remedy; within the Home, the School, and 
the Church. 

However, over and above all these mighty problems, ‘God 


Shall Jesus Find Faith on Earth? bas 


moves in a mysterious way His wonders to perform.” He gives 
full measure of liberty to all men as evidenced by the fact that 
every great war has been preceded by the violation in a large 
way of the precepts of Christianity. But, we ask, where is the 
foundation on which men expect a millennium of universal right- 
eousness before the personal return of our ascended Lord? 
Rather is not the political, moral and religious restlessness of our 
time a prophetic finger pointing toward judgment? Neverthe- 
less, out of the very darkness surrounding us we perceive the 
breaking of the light, and out of our narrowing trouble comes 
some fresh largeness of hope. 


CHAPTER XIX. 


3). THE FAMILY AND ITS IMPORTANCE TO THE 
STATE. 


Marriage was ordained by God to lead His children into the 
mystery of His heavenly home and to give them a foretaste of 
its joys; to be the fountain head of the Christian family, the bul- 
wark of the free State, and the hope of perfected mankind. 

From the family spring the waters that gladden, sweeten and 
purify, or sadden, embitter and pollute the world. As is the home 
so are the Church, Society and State. No people ever rise above 
or sink below the influence of their home life. It is the pulse and 
temperature of a nation, as Dr. W. Rauschenbusch well said, “the 
foundation of morality, the chief educational institution and 
the source of nearly all the real contentment among men.” 
(Christianity and Social Crisis, p. 272). 

A home destitute of truth, virtue and godliness sends out its 
influences with productive power to curse and undermine all 
forms of social life; whilst the surest pledge of public well-being 
is furnished by the godly training received in Christian homes. 
God has bound up in the family ties that which makes for the 
highest possible development of all social institutions. 


Man and woman coming together by the choice of their hearts, 
and creating a place called home, assume relations and respon- 
sibilities of infinite range and power. It is no mere temporal ar- 
rangement or respectable connection, it is both sacred and holy. 
If either has little or nothing to bring of love, cheerfulness and 
sacrifice, then sad indeed will it be for both. If either should 
fail to be true and keep inviolate what is brought into that union, 
it is sadder still. No single step can be taken in the way of 
irresponsible indulgence without wrecking the home and shatter- 
ing the very foundations of social order. We cannot afford to 
forget or neglect the home and our plighted allegiance thereto. 


If we would have our sons and daughters think virtue of small 
156 


Shall Jesus Find Faith on Earth? 157 


account, all we need do is to mix socially with those we know to 
have lax morals, and admit them freely to our homes. If we 
would set the feet of husband or wife on the road to swift and 
complete ruin we should give them to believe that they are at 
liberty to form whatever social alliances they may choose re- 
gardless of home ties; that they may go wherever their poor, 
vacillating affections may lead, or dark passions impel. 

Conjugal affection is a rare sensitive plant that is easily 
blighted, and dies at the touch of anything socially impure or 
unclean. If it is what it ought to be, pure and holy, it shares 
burdens, cultivates and strengthens patience, multiplies joys, gives 
character and beauty to every thing in the home, thereby morally 
affecting the State for good, and by so much more raises the 
standard of all society. 

The greatness of our country has come more from her moderate 
masses than from her transcendent leaders. Here God has created 
the largest middle class the world has ever seen. It includes the 
entire skilled labor of the nation. This is its prime differentia- 
tion from the bourgeois that our soviet friends are so fond of 
sneering at, together with the quality inherent in our whole social 
and economic scheme of things, it is not a fixed group enduring 
from generation to generation. Its membership comes and goes 
with the ability of father and son and daughter. So it is essential- 
ly a dynamic crowd as opposed to the static, rather self-satisfied, 
extremely bourgeois type of Europe. In short its members have 
the American potentialities of achievement and success. These 
make the best citizens and are the best hope of the State. Em- 
phasis must be placed therefore upon the family as divinely in- 
stituted to care for and train up children in the way they should 
go. 

It follows then that the great work of the home is to rear and 
train young lives for positions of trust and honor in society, 
the Church and the State. If the home is responsible for good 
men and women, it is also for the bad. The influences of home 
environment follow one throughout a life time, either to bless 


158 Shall Jesus Find Faith on Earth? 


or to curse. There is such a thing as throwing around a home 
many beautiful and blessed influences, so that the children will 
ever cling to it with obedience and undying love, directing weary 
feet and making light the burdens of life. 

“Tt is here that the spirit of wise government must flow from 
parentage. The parental qualities make the aim of family govern- 
ment to be for the welfare of the governed, these may succeed or 
fail as they act wisely or unwisely, but that is the aim, the wel- 
fare of the children. This gives the best direction for all kinds. 
of government, the welfare of the governed. Then too the obe- 
dience of children in such a family is not of fear but of love, 
recognizing the need of such government, an obedience of loyalty 
to the parents. This spirit becomes by natural growth the spirit 
of citizens in such a government, the obedience of loyalty to the 
State. 

“In the family where there are at least four children, the 
brother and sister qualities being in full exercise, the living for 
self finds its proper development and its healthy limits in living 
with and for others. Thus the spirit of true citizenship is cultured 
in the family, the sharing of opportunities, privileges and respon- 
sibilities of life in a brotherly spirit.” (Schenck, Soc. and Bible, 
p. 162). 

It can be readily seen how vitally such a spirit affects society 
and the State. But where character and stamina are lacking, 
what can any institution, civil or ecclesiastical, do with it? “Every 
house divided against itself cannot stand.” Where is the root of 
the evil? The question once asked in a mothers’ meeting was, 
“When should a mother begin to train her child?” It received the 
terse reply, “Twenty years before the child is born.” What an 
asset for such a child to get a proper start in life, and how much 
easier to train it in the way it should go. Evil influences and sug- 
gestions from without would have a lessened power of control. 
But this is not so generally, what we find is that the modern en- 
vironment, particularly in cities, has become most deplorable. 
What the Church and the Sunday School would build up, in many 


Shall Jesus Find Faith on Earth? 159 


instances the home, the street, the numerous cheap amusement 
and connected shady places undermine. 

The twentieth century evil spirit has become a pleasant tempter 
in the garb of an angel of light, bringing pain and sadness into 
many a life and home which our physicians, if they would, could 
easily and tragically paint by denouncing the secret sins of society 
committed within and without the marriage bond, and not so 
much among the poor as the well-to-do. Their sins are bound up 
as a clerk of the assizes binds up the indictments of malefactors 
in a bundle, and at the trial brings them out and reads them in 
court. So God binds up these secret sins, and at the judgment 
there will be a revelation with remorse. 

And no wonder the divorce mill is forever grinding out its vic- 
tims, first “hatched, then matched, and then, dispatched.” Sta- 
tistics prove that in twenty years one hundred and seventy thou- 
sand “migratory divorces” out of a total of nine hundred thou- 
sand cases were brought on in this country alone with the change 
of residence. From twenty-five to fifty per cent of the children in 
our reform schools have been found there because of the separa- 
tion of the parents; proving a pressing necessity for legislation 
wherein not only every State shall be required to formulate laws 
in harmony with all the other States, but that both parties in 
every divorce suit must be represented. 

The Hon. Carroll D. Wright, an authority on the subject, claims 
however, that “the question of divorce cannot be satisfactorily 
or judiciously considered from the standpoint of unregulated 
sentiment on the one hand, or a rigid ecclesiastical doctrine on 
the other. We must look at it broadly, in its relation to other 
changes in society, especially with a recognition of the intel- 
lectual, social, and industrial equality of woman, and her progress 
toward emancipation in all directions. We cannot assert, that 
divorce is to be considered as an isolated question, to be solved 
offhand by a single act of the legislature; but we must ascertain, 
whether or not a tendency toward divorce means retrogression, 
~ whether or not it means a vitiated moral public sentiment, whether 


160 Shall Jesus Find Faith on Earth? 


or not it ts an evil, and we must look the question fairly in the 
face, in all its bearings courageously and honestly.” 

Analyzing and reading this expert statement between the lines, 
it means to say that modern divorce is in the main not a cause 
but the inevitable result of a grievous disorder of society, so that 
we cannot see our way clear to join with others in their indis- 
criminate condemnation of divorce. Instead of condemning more 
liberal divorce laws, and advocating reactionary legislation we 
should seek the evils which lead in too many instances to have 
dulled the senses to all that is sacred in the home life. 

Immorality can never conform to morality. Water and oil 
will not mix. This has been tried over and over again and failed, 
as illustrated at Monaco, where the two chief buildings are the 
cathedral built on one cape, and the Monte Carlo Casino gam- 
bling palace on the other, half a mile apart, and both erected by 
the same family. Monaco is quite religious. There are also a 
convent and a monastery. Many nuns walk its streets. But the 
place swarms with a greater number of rouged women than in 
any other city in Europe, and more lives are ruined every year 
at the Casino than the bishop in his cathedral can save in a gen- 
eration. Those who maintain this plague spot of corruption, con- 
sidered outwardly the most beautiful spot in the world, a para- 
dise given to sin, evidently consider themselves very devout. 

It is like Ephraim, “a cake not turned,” which presents the 
most fearful and difficult problem of our time. The actual cause 
of modern looseness in morals and religion is just this hypocriti- 
cal playing with pagan ideas and practices which gradually lead 
to the destruction of the home and the State. Perhaps our arti- 
ficial mode of life has something to do with this. Men today are 
controlled by their nerves. The excitement of life, together with 
the all too common use of stimulants and narcotics, has had a 
tendency to make us a generation peculiarly sensitive and even 
irritable, all resulting from the mad pursuit of wealth, which has 
affected the family in no small measure. 

All cities in greater or less degree are the centers of great and 


Shall Jesus Find Faith on Earth? 161 


strenuous commercial transactions, of ambitious, increasing 
magnitude. Men are driven by fierce competition and are almost 
wholly absorbed in thought and endeavor, six and even seven 
days in the week, 'to the attainment of wealth. The dollar in their 
vision obtrudes all else in their haste and desire to obtain the de- 
lusive riches. What moral interest can there really be in the wel- 
fare of their own families excepting in the payment of monthly 
accounts and allowances, when the godless principle in this evil 
day of profiteering, “every man for himself and the devil take the 
hindmost”’ is the rule of the market. 


Naturally if there are children they will throw aside all 
restraint, where the father is merely respected according to what 
he doles out in dollars and cents. For a while this lax system 
may work well enough, but a family or a nation swayed by such 
principles, supplanting its nobler aims and purposes, carries with- 
in itself the seeds of destruction. Children of mere materialists 
live lives of self-indulgence, permitting luxury to relax their 
nerves, softening their brain tissues, and making their muscles 
flabby. The cushion and mandolin business and all that sort of 
thing do not go in real life. “Evidently some of our family trees 
need spraying!” 

The natural sequence of the money craze then is material 
pleasure: the dance hall, the card table, the moving picture 
theatres, sometimes five and even six of them in a common city 
block, which have become the sanctuaries for millions of our 
population. It is an irresistible passion that binds and drives 
them to excess and very often appeals only to their lower na- 
tures. | 


Legitimate, clean, wholesome amusement must be encouraged. 
God takes no greater pleasure than in seeing His children happy, 
and there is a conformity to the esthetic customs of society which 
afford an opportunity for the diffusion of society which isola- 
tion and separation cannot give. Naturally, then, reason and con- 
science must determine such questions, together with common 


162 Shall Jesus Find Faith on Earth? 


sense application of Christian ethics, which then clear the way 
of all scruples. 

However, never before have people of all ages, from the young- 
est to the oldest been so attracted by what is a veritable conta- 
gious epidemic called “movieitis,” flocking to these temples of 
pleasure, afternoons, evenings and Sundays. What evils lurk be- 
hind the gilded front, or are in store for them upon the screen. 
Some plays may be as effective as a gospel sermon, which is say- 
ing much where there is no prayer nor Saviour nor spiritual 
atmosphere, but oftener the screen robes the shameless ballet- 
dance with the fig-leaves of music and insults the first principles 
of modesty. 

A game of cards is in itself innocent, but the defiling touch of 
gamblers and pickpockets has for centuries made the game leprous ; 
and “euchre’ is made filthy with lucre, set up as the snare to 
catch the unwary. The horse-race is defended as a simple ex- 
hibition of beauty and speed of the noblest of animals; but as an 
institution, it is another open door to hell. And, there may be 
“nothing inherently wrong in the dance,” simply the “poetry of 
motion,” and it may be conducted by those of stainless character ; 
but as the dance exists today, it deserves the name with which 
an earnest moralist boldly brands it, “lascivious.” 

Verily the spirit of Monaco rules far and wide in these days. 
It is the religion of Epicurus who assumed pleasure to be the 
highest good; given to luxury; indulging in sinful appetites with- 
out stint or limit, and the result is evident. The moral and spir- 
itual sense of taste is lost. It is a stubborn, self-satisfying spirit, 
which Christ deplored and with which the home, the Church, 
social science and the State are now asked to grapple. 

What ‘apostasy! Can we dare go so far as to assert that this is 
why the ravages of the cholera traversed whole continents in 
1832, 1834, and 1839, which proved indeed very sad chapters in 
the world’s history? What was the actual cause of the great 
world war? It was simply history repeating itself: Christ re- 
crucified, spat upon, and his garments parted. Our age is com- 


Shall Jesus -Find Faith on Earth? 163 


parable to France in the fifteenth century. The streets were 
flooded with blood from the guillotine. Men acted like wild 
beasts feeding on carnage. Paris was the abode of demons. And 
then, when it all ended, were the people free? They were glad 
to take refuge under another yoke of despotism! 

Men then inquired as they blindly do now, “how could such 
events occur under the government of an all-wise and benevolent 
Deity?” History can answer that question, for there were polit- 
ical reasons in the follies and oppressions of the reign of Louis 
XV, and Louis XVI, when God was dethroned, the Bible and 
Christianity discarded, and the shameless prostitute “Godess of 
Reason” enthroned in Notre Dame. Then the rightful and only 
incumbent of that holy office gave them over to their own lusts, 
in rapine, violence and blood-shed; and well might we also, as 
Americans, pray in the words of Rudyard Kipling: 

“God of our fathers, known of old— 
Lord of our far-flung battle line— 

Beneath whose awful hand we hold 
Dominion over palm and pine, 

Lord God of Hosts, be with us yet, 
Lest we forget—lest we forget.” 

Sociologists have always and rightly claimed that the family 
is the unit of society. Accordingly how dependent the State on 
this unit. In the face of the facts enumerated, what then can be 
the remedy that will avert the fall of the family, that institution 
considered so important? (Can more philanthropic palliatives be 
applied to solve the problem? All of them have been weighed 
in the balances and found wanting, excepting Christ and His 
Church. 

Repentance, faith, confession, baptism and the family-altar are 
still the only ties that bind the home to the Church and to heav- 
en, the fountain of blessing to the State and the Nation. No 
wonder a statesman like Joshua exclaimed, “As for me and my 
house, we will serve the Lord.” To this the apostle Paul signif- 
icantly adds, “Present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, ac- 
ceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.” 


164 Shall Jesus Find Faith on Earth? 


Liberty therefore involves a redoubled responsibility. Those 
children that have not inherited self-restraint and sober moral im- 
pulses from worthy sires are apt to become intoxicated with the 
unbounded liberty they expect to enjoy: and to rebel against all 
law and authority. It is only pure air that can invigorate and 
stimulate, and make ruddy, healthy bodies. It is only the moral, 
intellectual, spiritual home that can produce moral, intellectual 
and spiritual children, giving stability to the State. 


CHAPTER XxX. 
ays DHE EDUCATION WORTH WHILE. 


In the judgment of nations, the one most serious indictment 
will be the charge of neglect and indifference toward the funda- 
mental principle of all education, “Train up a child in the way 
he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it.” 
“And the King shall answer them saying, Verily I say unto you, 
inasmuch as ye did it NOT to one of the least of these, ye did 
it NOT to Me. And these shall go away into everlasting pun- 
ishment.” It follows then that the training of the body, mind 
and soul on the part of competent authorities is the child’s birth- 
right, this is its righteous claim on the home, the school and the 
Church; wherein society and the State are vitally involved and 
obligated for their own good. 

Amid many acknowledged hindrances and deficiencies the State 
in this country has liberally built up the finest school system of 
the world. Without hesitation, and opposed to the proposed 
substitutes emanating from the heinousness of those enemies 
who would undermine and make it what it shall not be, in their 
so-called defense against ignorance, sectarianism and bigotry, 
we reverently declare that our fathers were divinely inspired in 
their determination that the American people should be an edu- 
cated people, capable of reading for their information and of 
thinking for themselves. 


With that purpose in mind, the nation’s first builders established 
our system of public schools to prepare their children for citizen- 
ship, and to render ‘the same service to immigrants from many 
lands. They knew that their opinions were neither final nor in- 
fallible, that new problems would arise to be solved in the future; 
but they had faith to believe that if posterity were educated with 
some degree of liberality, and were inspired with the noble idea 
of self-government, they might be able to think and do for them- 


selves even under unforeseen circumstances. 
165 


166 Shall Jesus Find Faith on Earth? 


However, big fissures in 'this wonderful structure have ap- 
peared, because its foundation stone, the Bible, originally laid by 
the master builders, has been removed by the enemy. In most 
of the States the Bible, and therefore all religious training, is 
excluded from the curriculum of our public schools because we 
no longer have a Bible reading public, to many of whom, “the 
epistles only mean the wives of the apostles!” The people control 
or should control the schools and can put into them what they 
please. It is not that we are afraid of sectarianism or a state re- 
ligion, we dread both far less than our fathers did, who made the 
Bible the chief text-book of the school. 

Just that which helped make the system impregnable as in- 
tended by our Revolutionary fathers, has been abolished in most 
States because of the rivalry of sectarianism between Judaism, 
Romanism and Protestantism; and naturally our children have 
become excellent material for the most appalling skepticism of 
some of the higher institutions of learning, where the Church and 
Bible schools are unable to cope with the situation. It is even 
asserted that our schools are barred from reading and teaching 
the Bible because on a world view of religions Christianity might 
itself be called a sect. Yet ten out of twelve state supreme courts 
have in recent years declared that prohibition of sectarianism in 
schools does not exclude the Bible. 

The National Teachers’ Association has also taken a firm stand 
in this matter to the effect that if the opponents would consider 
the question with sole regard to the welfare of the child and the 
nation, rather than the interests of various theologies, they could 
scarcely oppose the movement to restore the Bible in the schools 
as the logical conclusion of the two premises: first, that every 
child is entitled as a religious being to religious education; and 
second, that as this is the most important part of all teaching, 
those who give it, should be pedagogically trained along this line, 
so far as possible. 

What else could be offered for the improvement of our modern 
system of education in the face of the question,—“Wiull not the 


Sanit Geass TEL GST Gn eatin ay 


ideal curriculum embrace something more than a knowledge of 
literature, the sciences, or mere technical skill?” The serious- 
ness of the situation has even aroused our statesmen in the con- 
sideration of plans and suggestions for a Bill of Americanization. 
It is an emotional subject. It touches the life-blood of the 
country. The bare facts arouse and excite an alarm beyond any 
day’s grist of the world’s news. 

In this Americanizattion Bill one sees at a glance the source of 
all that ominous cloud of misinformed, misled discontent which 
hangs upon our horizon waiting for some untoward wind to blow 
it across our land in a wasting tornado. For example: Three 
millions of our population are deaf to the English tongue. Five 
and a half millions are blind to the printed word. Only 8 per 
cent of Russians are naturalized within a five-to-nine year period. 
Of Bulgarians, 96 per cent; of Rumanians, 95 per cent; of 
Greeks, 92 per cent; of Croatians, 95 per cent; of Armenians, 76 
per cent; of Austrians, 67 per cent, employed by 112 employers 
of labor, are not citizens. Of our farm folk 3,700,000 cannot 
read or write. 

How can we hope for a united nation amid such conditions? 
We have no way of communicating effectively either our theories 
or our soctal life to these vast masses of our population. They 
are not becoming Americans. They are great islands of alienism, 
utterly beyond our reach to persuade or advise or protect so long 
as the deep gulf of an alien tongue separates them from our 
national life. What can we expect except that radical leaders ap- 
pealing to these alien groups in their own tongue can easily win 
them to stupid and suicidal attacks upon that which they do not 
understand? It is a modest program that the Americanization 
Bill lays down. Some of the problems it does not attempt to 
touch. 

Indeed a mighty problem, and where our statesmen are forced 
to evade the issue by ignoring just that which can solve it. Any 
other expert high priced suggestion is negligible, where the 
foreign born must remain but surging masses even as they came 


168 Shall Jesus Find Faith on Earth? 


to our shores at our consent and in many instances upon our 
urging. Instead come suggestions of compulsory education in 
our public schools, overlooking the fact, unconsciously perhaps, 
that these people are tired out after a day’s hard labor, when 
their ears are to be opened to the English tongue and their eyes 
to the printed word. And yet, accomplishing all this, what will 
the English tongue do to solve the great problem? 

If without the proper foundation, the education of the present 
day may be summed up in a person of taste perhaps, who knows 
a few classical quotations, with a veneer of knowledge, just 
enough to make him think he is educated. The most pitiful 
creature in the world is a so-called educated person who does 
not know how to use his education, and when he makes the at- 
tempt it means a complete failure, thereby harming not only him- 
self but others, and it generally tends toward an imitative radi- 
calism that is most dangerous; “weighed in the balances and 
found wanting.” 

An education solidly based on Christian faith and doctrine will 
always prove and acknowledge itself the expositor of the ideals 
and ethics of the ages. Radicalism on the other hand, finds itself 
out of ‘accord with the tenets of that religion, and therefore dis- 
cards it, 1f not officially, yet through the expressions of its leading 
exponents from time to time. Trying to serve two masters some 
“reformers” appeal ‘to the doctrine of Christ as their only re- 
liance. Such radicals teach the doctrine of hate; Christ however, 
taught love. The poet Tennyson illustrates the difference: 


“One ship drives east, and another drives west, 
With the self-same wind that blows. 

*Tis the set of the sails and not the gales, 
That tells which way we go. 


Like the winds of the sea are the ways of fate, 
As we voyage on through life. 

’Tis the set of the soul and not the goal, 
That tells the way we go.” 


Viscount Grey recently ventured the suggestion that “good 
will’? will cure the social and economic ills of the world, Chris- 


Shall Jesus Find Faith on Earth? 169 


tian and secular education have been teaching the doctrine of 
good will for nearly two thousand years. It reached its broadest 
application in the doctrine of the Nazarene and the teachings of 
the Apostle Paul, notably in Paul’s epistles to the Philippians and 
Ephesians, wherein he declares that some preach Christ “of good 
will” and “with good will doing service as to the Lord and not to 
men.” 

Good will is renouncement of all that 1s not in conformity with 
divine order, a sacrifice of self-interest, forgetfulness and disre- 
gard of self. It is an ideal devoutly to be desired, yet in the 
course of two thousand years it has not attained the anticipated 
results. 

Professor A. T. Hadley said, that “self-government is impos- 
sible without intelligent unselfishness, the kind of unselfishness 
that Jesus taught two thousand years ago.” But, where can this 
“intelligent unselfishness” be attained, excepting as Charles Spur- 
geon once put it: “Educate a man’s head and you make him 
an infidel, educate his heart and you make him a fanatic, educate 
both together and you get a better man.” 

Especially is this true in the problem of Americanization now 
before the country. A “New York Tribune’’ writer, comment- 
ing on the situation, tritely said, “there are infidels and fanatics 
in the land, and one class is as undesirable and dangerous as the 
other. What is called “Bolshevism” is the product of too much 
brain education at the expense of the heart. Bolshevists imagine 
they are promoting a doctrine whose source is the heart and the 
conscience, whereas it 1s created out of a false kind of education, 
an education of the head beyond its capacity. 

“Fanatics are persons educated in the heart alone at the ex- 
pense of the head and common sense. Fanatics, are obsessed with 
emotions and visions. They do not think straight, often they do 
not think honestly. Radical reformers are too often filled with so 
many emotions as altogether to lose sight of the safe and sane. 
The difference between a genius and a fanatic is the difference be- 
tween emotion tempered with reason and emotion without the 


170 Shall Jesus Find Faith on Earth? 


calm which comes from a true education and the proper use of 
the brain. The world is troubled with an abnormal education of 
the heart and too little education of the head. A balance should 
be struck.” This is no doubt what Shakespeare meant when he 
said, 

“Tonorance is the curse of God, 

Knowledge the wing, wherewith we fly to heaven.” 

It is therefore perfectly clear that our greatest problems ox 
be solved by making the Bible the most important text-book in 
our public schools, taught by pedagogically trained, conscientious 
unbiased teachers, who have this balance of head and heart, 
thoroughly biblical and not sectarian; for, why should books of 
finite men, pagan and infidel, be put before the Word of God 
in education, that Word which represents the highest wisdom? 
Is it honoring our Maker? Is it Christian? The Bible should 
be first in every line of study, because first impressions endure 
the longest, and because, 

“Save for my daily range 

Among the pleasant fields of Holy Writ, 

I might despair.” 
It is thus that Tennyson would tell us that the fear of the Lord 
is the principal part of knowledge. “Seek first the Kingdom of 
God and all these things shall be added,” and, “train up a child 
in ‘the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart 
from it.” 

One of the most remarkable statements in this relationship 
recently appearing and sent broadcast by the International Sun- 
day School Association, is from the pen of T. H. Wolcott, say- 
ing, “a little girl whose parents were members of a famous re- 
ligious sect always associated with Utah, was asked if she knew 
where Boston was. “Oh, yes,” she replied, “we send mission- 
aries there.’ If we live in the East, we probably think that re- 
mark “funny.” It isn’t, because there isn’t a city in the United 
States, and scarcely even a hamlet, that is not in urgent need of 
missionaries being sent to its children. According to the census 


| 





Shall Jesus Find Faith on Earth? 171 


report there are in this country 25,000,000 children under twelve 
years of age, and according to reliable figures that have been 
compiled by religious and philanthropic organizations twelve mil- 
lion of these children are absolutely without religious instruction 
of any kind. 

“Such persons are generally regarded as heathen. Are Ameri- 
can children heathen? This is alarming. If this condition con- 
tinues, what sort of civilization shall we have twenty years hence? 
This state of things must be changed or we shall be nationally 
only materialistic, if not atheistic. We should take a look at our 
own glass house just now while it is quite the proper thing to 
throw stones at another nation for having trod a wrong path. 
Religious education must have a vital place in the reconstruction 
program of the future. 

“The public schools can itsvSlae a race that is efficient and 
patriotic, but under the limitations which seem to be unavoidable, 
they can never develop a race that will be Christian. This can 
be done only by having in every community schools of religion as 
effective in the teaching of their subjects as the public schools 
are in their work. Three elements are necessary in order to en- 
able the Sunday School to do the work so desperately needed by 
the nation: an aroused public conscience, trained teachers, and 
the adoption of modern Sunday School technic. 

“Shall the lessons learned in war be applied to the arts of 
peace? The answer will depend on how Christian this nation is 
at heart. Most men and women can be noble in a crisis if they 
have the time to prepare for it, but to be generous and helpful in 
everyday humdrum life, will test any character. In such an hour 
the habits cultivated by the public schools and the schools of re- 
ligion, Sunday and week-day schools, will be the greatest con- 
trolling factor.” 

It is what we are that determines what our children and the 
state of society are to be after us. The precious heritage of a 
godly ancestry was the ringing challenge set forth in the words of 
George Washington when he said, “We will maintain our liberty 


Ves Shall Jesus Find Faith on Earth? 


and freedom only through the religious education of our chil- 
dren.” The highest freedom can only be secured by a free and 
complete obedience to every detail of the eternal law. Striving 
to attain that which acts in accord with the highest form of our | 
being we learn that it will be only on the foundation of the Word 
of Him who said, “The Truth shall make you free.” 


CHAPTER XXI. 
Se ChHURCHOAND ITS MISSION. 


At the most critical stage in the career of Christ upon earth, 
when His enemies increased with the purpose of putting Him out 
of the way, He turned to His disciples and asked: “But whom 
say ye that I am?” And Simon Peter answered, “Thou art the 
Christ, the Son of the living God.” And Jesus said: ‘Upon this 
Rock,” the rock of Christian testimony concerning the divinity 
and saving power of Jesus Christ our Lord, “I will build my 
Church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.” 

It is this one body, that confesses Him in all parts of the world, 
justified by faith, to which the special privileges of the Gospel 
are given, “the called out” mystical membership, in whom is dis- 
cerned the election of the Father, the sprinkling of the blood 
of Jesus Christ, and the sanctifying work of the Holy Spirit, 
which is the Church. 

At first, as an insignificant blade sprouting from the soil, it 
gave little hope for its promised marvellous setting. Suddenly 
effective in every sense of the word however, the astonished 
world sat up to behold that out of the stable manger of Bethle- 
hem had grown a new world. The humble birthplace witnessed 
the origin of the force which destroyed the religions of the old 
world and a movement which created a reformation in every de- 
partment of life, proving during nineteen centuries that the Gos- 
pel of Jesus Christ is indeed and in truth the grand and all- 
sufficient remedy for all the evils which beset mankind. 


Dr. I. M. Haldeman, on Rauschenbusch’s “Christianity and the 
Social Crisis,” says, “The mission of the Church, contrary to the 
views of many modern writers on social science, is not to save 
society, make it better, and set up a spiritual kingdom in a world 
which has rejected the King, and where His Cross still flings the 
shadow of its brutal shame upon an unrepentant earth. The mis- 


sion of the Church is not to cry peace in a world which, by the 
173 


174 Shall Jesus Find Faith on Earth? 


grace of God alone, simply exists under a pronounced, but 
suspended sentence. The Church is here as the ark was in the 
days before the flood, a witness of the world’s condemnation, a 
warning of judgment to come, and an open door of invitation, 
bidding men to flee unto Him who is the Head of a new and 
coming race, and the alone author of eternal life to men.” 

As the most dynamic moral force in the world, however, the 
Church has stood and is still standing at the fork of the roads 
pointing the way to truth, salvation and eternal life, as against a 
selfish, sordid, satanic Bolshevism, caring neither for justice nor 
mercy, the way to violence, greed and shameless immoralities. 

The influence of this mighty institution, after having coura- 
geously passed through another crisis, is again seen in the modern 
endeavor to mutualize all human interests, the enthronement of 
the many instead of the few, and the appeal for the recognition 
of the economic, social and moral unity and welfare of all man- 
kind. It is now acknowledged by many that its secret vitalizing 
power resides in the fact that it is not a dogma, nor merely an 
institution, but a Personality, the Bride of Christ her Lord. As 
such she belongs to no class or clique, race or social group, and 
welcomes to her fellowship all those who are weary and heavy 
laden and who will take the yoke of Christ upon them and thus 
find rest unto their souls. Having fellowship with Christ in His 
sufferings, they enjoy ‘the true apostolic succession.’ 

It is not surprising then that the many social problems enu- 
merated, and elucidated, according to nature’s teaching, now all 
come in full array to the fork of the roads where the Church is 
standing, and not only request recognition, but ask the question, 
“Does this, the greatest moral force in the world fully recognize 
its responsibility as a factor in the every-day life of the com- 
munity?” 

Historically always handicapped, the general reaction following 
the war affected the Church in no small measure as she awakened 
to the awful moral loss of international ties, the feelings of bit- 
ter enmity and strife aroused on every hand, proving it a world 


Shall Jesus Find Faith on Earth? 175 


suffering from overstrain and agitated by conflicting programs of 
reorganization. 

The “Commission on Church and Social Service” declares it 
“most fortunate that the Church has also undergone a transforma- 
tion. The churches today recognize, as they did not a generation 
ago, that the Kingdom of God is as comprehensive as human life 
with all of its interests and needs, and that they share in common 
responsibility for a Christian world order. They are convinced 
that the world is the subject of redemption; that the ethical prin- 
ciples of the Gospels are to be applied to industry and to the re- 
lations of nations; that the Church is to devote itself henceforth 
assiduously to these purposes along with the individual ministries 
of religion.” 

We are being taught through innumerable products of social 
science that in taking this position, the Church realizes that it is 
on historic ground. It recalls the words of Isaiah the prophet, 
“Is not this the fast that I have chosen; to loose the bands of 
wickedness, to undo the heavy burdens and to let the oppressed 
go free, and that ye break every yoke? Is it not to deal thy 
bread 'to the hungry, and that thou bring the poor that are cast 
out to thy house? when thou seest the naked, that thou cover 
him; and that thou hide not thyself from thine own flesh?” (Isa. 
58 :6-7). 

It is granted that this Old Testament sentence does embody to 
a great extent all the ethical principles of Christ as set forth in 
the Gospels, the Sermon on the Mount, the Lord’s Prayer, the 
Golden Rule, and the Summary of the Law. It therefore singu- 
larly illustrates the social program of the Church in the Law of 
Regeneration, the Law of Righteousness, and the Law of Love, 
which reveal their peculiar relationship to the problems of the 
present day. 

Logically we so arrange these three laws in their order be- 
cause they are not only fundamentally Christian, but have also, 
been adopted as fundamental in the so-called “social gospel” on 
the basis of evolution, through which it is expected that the 


176 Shall Jesus Find Faith on Earth? 


“social consciousness” will be awakened in order to put into 
effect a utilitaristic plan of “social reconstruction,” the outcome 
of which would naturally be Comte’s hope of “A Religion of Hu- 
manity.” 

The: Law of Regeneration is set forth by Jesus in His con- 
versation with Nicodemus, “Except a man be born of water and 
the Spirit he cannot enter into the Kingdom of God.” He evident- 
ly refers not alone to the Rite of Baptism, but that which the 
rite signifies, the cleansing of the soul from the condemnation 
of sin, based upon repentance and faith in the atoning sacri- 
fice. And by the Spirit He meant the Holy Spirit, both the 
personal Spirit and the life influence which flows from that All 
Spirit, even as our Lord said, “The wind bloweth where it listeth, 
and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it 
cometh and whither it goeth; so is every one that is born of the 
Spine) Onn 3)3 

This influence which flows from ‘the All-Spirit transforms the 
life of the individual, which fact should naturally affect the char- 
acter of society, and does, where there is vital conversion and re- 
generation. As Christ in that Gospel portrays the true and effec- 
tive Evangelist, every disciple should accordingly become a wit- 
ness, in order to work upon other individuals and thereby upon 
the social order for its regeneration, in season and out of season, 
whether society will be regenerated or not, does not here enter 
into the proposition. 

Naturally this statement is not altogether in accord with some 
of the new perverting doctrines set forth on the basis of 
evolutionistic social science. “Nothing could more terrifically 
rebuke the idea of salvation by class and arouse us to the fact 
that salvation first and last in this age must be soul by soul, 
and each soul saved by individual relation to an individual and 
responsive Saviour. What shall a social redemption profit to 
the man whose soul misses God because it has missed union with 
His Christ? The Church is not to spend its energies on purify- 
ing Sodom, but to witness against it, and never to get away from 


Shall Jesus Find Faith on Earth? Vw) 


the fact that the question of this age is not the ‘sin question,’ nor 
the ‘social question,’ but the ‘Son Question,’ and that the persistent 
demand of heaven to earth and to every human being is, ‘What 
think ye of Christ?” 

Only in this scriptural sense should regeneration be under- 
stood and applied, which upon the basis of faith and prayer will 
solve the greatest of problems, because it is nothing human, but 
divine, and coming upon men as the greatest blessing, it not only 
visibly affects the world but preeminently the Church, concern- 
ing which “the Great Commission Prayer League’ recently de- 
clared that “there are thousands of God’s children, oppressed by 
world-wide spiritual drought, lorded over by ecclesiastical task- 
masters of Egyptian type, driven to desperation by the prophets 
of apostasy on every hand, crying to God for a world-wide re- 
vival in the body of Christ. And shall not God avenge His elect, 
which cry day and night unto Him?’ He did so in the days 
of Luther. He did it again in the day of Wesley, and Finney, 
and Moody. And He will do it again in our day, either by send- 
ing His Spirit or His Son. The darker the day the brighter 
the outlook. It was the bricks without straw that got the Israel- 
ites across the Red Sea. It was David’s enemies, that, under 
God, secured for him from a single tribe fifty thousand that 
could keep rank; they were not of double heart! And it is the 
power of darkness and apostasy today that, in answer to prayer, 
is baring the arm of God in the Church’s behalf.” 

Only by earnest prayer and evangelistic effort can the history 
of the Church, and, accordingly, the world be changed. Regen- 
eration will then mean not an evolutionistic or socialistic sign of 
comradeship, but a crown, the symbol of sovereignty, which with 
its benign influence will arouse the consciences of men in marvel- 
lous re-equipment of Christian motive, bringing to the world its 
vital need of the redeeming grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, with- 
out which human brotherhood will remain a phantom and a 
dream. 

Again, what is the relationship of the Law of Righteousness 


178 Shall Jesus Find Faith on Earth? 


toward the social problems of the day, delivered as a fundamen- 
tal ethical principle to the Church and by the Church in its teach- 
ing and practice, to all men? Can this law be applied to the so- 
called “social consciousness ?”” 

“So far from intimating that social conditions should be re- 
deemed and righteousness rule in men, Christ Jesus, the Head of 
the Church declared that lawlessness would be multiplied. He 
held out no hope of social betterment. He occupies Himself 
with warning the individual soul of its need of salvation. He 
who is misnamed as a social saviour lays down the most stu- 
pendous proposition ever heard for the need of individual sal- 
vation: “What shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole 
world, and lose his own soul?” What is the advantage of a per- 
fect human society on earth, what is the worth of the best con- 
dition it can offer to the man who has lost his soul in this world; 
who while in this world, is dissevered from a personal Saviour ?” 
(Haldeman, on Rauschenbusch’s Christianity and Social Crisis, 
pooie 

As with the application of the law of regeneration to society in 
the solution of its problems, so with the law of righteousness, it 
can again only remain a utopian ideal where righteous laws may 
be placed upon the statute books, but impossible of enactment, be- 
cause society as such is not nor can be of its own volition what 
it surely will be under a ‘theocratic rule of government, which the 
King and Lord Jesus Christ only can introduce in the fulfillment 
of time. “For I bear them record that they have a zeal of God, 
but not according to knowledge. For they being ignorant of 
God’s righteousness, and going about to establish their own right- 
eousness, have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of 
God. For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to every 
one that believeth.” (Rom. 10:2-4). 

“Once again let socialism,” says Dr. Haldeman, p. 31, “Chris- 
tian or otherwise, bring about a state of society, wherein the con- 
ditions as to this life should seem to be perfect ; where capital and 
labor shall have joined hands; where the sword shall have been 


Shall Jesus Find Faith on Earth? 179 


beaten into a ploughshare and human flesh shall be no longer the 
prey of battles, even then the Son of Man shall step forward and 
putting this best society into the scales, weigh over against it a hu- 
man ‘soul, and in calm, judicial tones say: “The best gain this 
mortal life can produce is as nothing to the infinite need of the 
soul. Time’s shadows flee away, eternity dawns. What shall a 
social redemption profit to the man whose soul misses God be- 
cause it has missed union with His Christ? ” 

Thus if righteousness is a condition imputed to individuals only, 
by Christ, even as with regeneration, then the principle of right- 
eousness ethically is possible only from the standpoint of faith in 
Christ's propitiation for sin and unrighteousness and with Him 
as the goal. In so far as every redeemed ‘soul is to be evangelistic, 
so it is to live in His strength the most righteous life possible even 
as He is righteous, for which purpose He established the Golden 
Rule in relationship to others, and thus society can only in so far 
be affected as the individuals of society become Christians grow- 
ing in ‘strength and number. 

Only in this Christ-spirit can safety be found, where righteous- 
ness will, as Judge Wendell P. Stafford recently put it, “formulate 
a policy that will treat all men as brothers, all equally entitled to 
the fruits of their labor, all equally entitled to raise themselves as 
high as possible, each in his own place, without doing wrong to 
any of the rest. It is the spirit of justice and fraternity that 
must be our guide’; but, where are we to look for leadership if 
not to the Church? Therefore society is far more dependent for 
its moral welfare on the individuals that make up the Church 
than supposed or appreciated; but, the Church is also under 
obligation to live righteously so that this law may permeate and 
change whatever unrighteousness it comes in contact with. 

Finally, the relationship of the Law of Love to the social 
problems of our day must be similiarly applied, only in a broader 
sense, for God is Love and would have all men receive the prof- 
fered redemption and the imputed righteousness of Christ. The 
law of self-denying, active service for good among men, the law 


180 Shall Jesus Find Faith on Earth? 


which stamps the great principle of selfishness as a vile and ex- 
ecrable thing, might truly be described as a new commandment, 
or the fulfillment of the law of Moses. And our Lord has not 
left this in mere abstract vagueness; but has fixed it on the 
Church His Bride, and brought it home to her conscience and 
heart by a definite and specified pattern: “As I have loved you, 
that ye also love one another.” That love of His, beyond anything 
the world has ever seen, was self-denying, boundless, to which 
He added His all. 

We must again notice that it is as individuals that make up 
the world of men, and not as society in general that He refers 
to us as seen throughout all His life and teaching. In only one 
sense are “His Individuals” collectively spoken of, and that as in- 
dividual members of His body, the Fountain of Love, who then 
through Him are to be rivers of love flowing out and enriching 
mankind. As such, Peter and John represented the Church as 
they beheld the cripple at the Gate Beautiful. Peculiar is the 
claim now that all the unrest and condition of society is typified 
in the cripple. Employer and employee, political parties, religious 
and sectarian rivalries and nations opposing each other are there 
seen as he begs an alms. What attitude shall the Church take? 
Shall there be no explanation? Or, shall the Church say that the 
world is dark, cruel and vengeful, having nothing to offer but 
“an insurance policy against fire in another world?” Can she do 
as much or more than Peter did by saying, “Silver and gold 
have I none, but that which I have, I give unto thee, in the name 
of Jesus Christ, rise up and walk?” 

“There are two sides to every question,’ remarked the phil- 
osopher. “There’s two sides also to a hickory nut,’ answered 
Farmer Corntossel: “an outside and an inside, but only one of 
‘em is worth payin’ any attention to.” Just so it is inward values 
that count in man’s redemption, not the outer. It was not silver 
and gold but the spiritual mind of Christ in Peter and John that 
restored the lame man; and that same power, on the basis of 
faith in the effectiveness of the death and resurrection of Jesus 


Shall Jesus Find Faith on Earth? 181 


Christ can heal humanity today if it is willing as individuals to 
receive it, and thus only bring about a mental, moral and spirit- 
ual resurrection from a human and carnal nature to a divine 
realization of life and being. 

And the Church, immediately following the world war, sudden- 
ly thinking the exegesis concerning the cripple before the Gate 
Beautiful as plausible, realizing her responsibility as a factor in 
the every day life of the community and the world, began to 
apply herself to the vital needs of the hour, in a stupendous pro- 
gram of service, called “The Inter-church World Movement,” 
which represented, as was claimed for it, “the marshalling of the 
forces of Protestant Christianity to cope with the world problems 
of the Church.” As this movement was to extend over a period 
of several years, a fair judgment of its value might easily have 
been formed on the basis of two conditions, as seen in Rev. 3: 
7,14, whether it was to be what was claimed for it or not. 

If it meant nothing more than a gigantic sociological effort to 
stir the Church and the world by its own power; merely a social, 
educational and ethical campaign, resulting from an awful 
awakening within all nations to the need of reconstruction follow- 
ing the devastation of the world war, it naturally would have been 
a reversion to the doctrine of salvation by good works, with justi- 
fication by faith in Christ entirely ignored; proving thereby the 
loss of the Pauline method, the Purpose of the Reformation, and 
the Keys of the Kingdom of Heaven; which evidently charac- 
terized the Church of Laodicea. 

On the other hand, if it were of God, and its propagators had 
spiritually discerned how the Church came into being, due to the 
wonderful testimony of the followers of Christ, the Saviour 
and Head of the Church, filled with the Holy Ghost, determined 
to know Jesus only, and to bring immortal souls into contact with 
Him for salvation, on the foundation of His atoning sacrifice 
and resurrection alone; it would have been found that this 
generation of Christians also, and in the Philadelphian spirit, is 
liberally and with holy zeal using the entrusted Keys, not only 


182 Shall Jesus Find Faith on Earth? 


unlocking the Kingdom door to all who by faith will enter out of 
every nation under heaven; but there would be the addition of 
another chapter to the Acts of the Apostles, which might be 
summed up in St. Paul’s expressive words, “So we preached and 
so we believed.” 

This analysis however, should by no means dampen any opti- 
mistic faith, strong conviction and zeal, even if the Inter-church 
World Movement was a failure, “because of extravagance in ad- 
ministration.” The lesson learned should bring the Church into 
proper relationship to God and His Word, out of which will be 
born mighty deeds gripping the heart and conscience of the fol- 
lowers of Christ to go forth to do and dare great things in the 
proclamation of the Gospel Message to the whole creation, 
pointing to the Gate Beautiful. That gate was expressly designed 
for that purpose and God desires and has made provision for all 
men to enter. But it is ‘not by might, nor by power, but by My 
Spirit, saith the Lord of Hosts.” “The harvest truly is plenteous, 
but the laborers are few; pray ye therefore the Lord of the harv- 
est, that He will send forth laborers into His harvest.’ We know 
of no other effectual way for the progress of the Church. 

Where then can the plan laid from the foundation of the world 
be improved upon by a so-called “social gospel?” The three 
cardinal principles of the spirit realm: regeneration, righteous- 
ness and love, cannot become personified, materialized or social- 
ized except by way of re-incarnated Christly lives, as they go 
forth to live and preach an evangelical gospel for entrance into 
the Kingdom of Heaven, which is at hand. 

Fundamentally then, what man needs in the changes that over- 
whelm him are the safeguards upon which wisdom and char- 
acter depend, the religion of Jesus Christ our Lord, according to 
the supernatural laws of regeneration, righteousness and love. 
As all external authority, of king or pope, tradition or custom 
loosens its hold, its place must be taken in the individual soul by 
the imperative of an enlightened conscience, the imperiousness 
of an enlightened will, obedient to the still, small voice of God, 


Shall Jesus Find Faith on Earth? 183 


Hence the solemn warning which closes and enforces that 
most wonderful of all discourses: ‘Therefore, whosoever hear- 
eth these sayings of mine, and doeth them, [ will liken him unto 
a wise man, which built his house upon a rock: and the rain de- 
scended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat 
upon that house; and it fell not: for it was founded upon a rock. 
And every one that heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them 
not, shall be likened unto a foolish man, which built his house 
upon the sand: and the rain descended, and the floods came, and 
the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell: and great 
was the fall of it.” 

All life therefore should be built around the one purpose which 
is most worth while; to let it run out to the end rich and deep 
and full in the plans of God for the world, for, in the words of 
Whittier, 


“The tissue of the life to be 

We weave with colors all our own, 
And in the field of destiny 

We reap what we have sown.” 


SHALL JESUS FIND FAITH ON EARTH? 
V. 
ACCORDING TO 
PoRsRHILOSORRYaOneailo horny. 


or, 


HISTORY PHILOSOPHICALLY CONSIDERED 
CHAPTER XXII. 


Arriving at the conclusion of the whole matter, in the fear of 
God, who shall bring every work into judgment, we are com- 
pelled to deal with this final subject as with those preceding, in 
all directness and conciseness, with an entire absence of any at- 
tempt to round off the clear cut corners of unpleasant truth; 
and in the spirit of Amos, the herdsman of Tekoa, “for God re- 
vealed His ‘secret unto His servants the prophets: the Lord God 
hath spoken, who can but prophesy ;’ and because more than any 
other branch of learning, history presents a comprehensive study 
of mankind. 

A great deal has been written in opposition to history, claim- 
ing it to be a vast river of falsehood, which is easily said and 
has been reiterated since the days of Herodotus, who “amply 
illustrated the splendors of unreality.” Yet, all we know of man 
in his relationship to the world we receive from history, and, 
Lord Beaconsfield well said, “Events are wonderful things.” It 
cannot be denied that there are numerous events in history that 
never can be obliterated and will be referred to because they 
with their consequences are deeply engraved upon the tablets 
of time and eternity; besides, we can know no nation unless we 
know its history, and it will also be found necessary to know 
the history of all nations. 

The sacred Book declares, ‘that which hath been is now; and 
that which is to be hath already been; and God requireth that 


which is past.’”’ Experience here testifies concerning the special 
184 


Shall Jesus Find Faith on Earth? 185 


service rendered by the past which makes its study so important. 
It shames our indolence; it cheers our despondency ; it guides our 
efforts. 

“Besides, what are our sciences but memories of the past? 
Astronomy is the memory of the universe. Geology is the mem- 
ory of the earth. History is the memory of the human race. 
There is nothing forgotten or left behind. The past is brought 
forward into the present, and out of the past the future grows. 
The reproduction of long-overpassed forms, the striking lack of 
varieties, and the recurrence of hybrids into the mother-species, 
are all familiar illustrations of the persistency of memory in the 
organic world. Nature never forgets. Nothing perishes without 
leaving a record of it behind. The past history of the universe 
is not only preserved in the memory of God, but is also inscribed 
upon its tablets.’ (Macmillan, Two Worlds Ours, p. 286). 

This is further substantiated, said Diderot, in the fact that 
“man is not contented to live and reign among his contemporaries 
alone; but, drawn by curiosity and self-love, eagerly and natural- 
ly endeavors at once to embrace the past, the present, and the 
future times. We desire to live with our successors and our pre- 
decessors. This sets forth the origin and design of history, 
which unites us with the ages past, by representing their vices, 
virtues, knowledge, and errors; and transmitting our own to 
posterity. 

“Tt is only by history we learn to esteem men for the good they 
do, and not for the seducing pomp that surrounds them. Sover- 
eigns who are so unhappy as to be excluded from truth on all 
sides, may here pass judgment upon themselves beforehand; for 
history is a tremendous, uncorrupt tribunal which judges their 
resembling predecessors just as it will do them. 

“Tt is one of the principal advantages arising from the history 
of empires, and their revolutions, to see how mankind, separated 
as it were into numerous large families, formed different societies ; 
how these societies gave rise to different forms of government; 
and how each people endeavored to distinguish themselves from 


186 Shall Jesus Find Faith on Earth? 


the rest by laws, and by particular signs as the means of more 
’ easily communicating their thoughts; whence arose the great 
diversity of languages and laws which, to our misfortune, is 
become a principal object of study. Hence also we see the origin 
of civil policy, as a particular and higher kind of morality, to 
which it is sometimes difficult, without straining, to accommodate 
the principles of common moral duty. For, civil policy, enter- 
ing into the principal motives of government, aims at discover- 
ing what may tend to preserve, weaken, or destroy a state. 

“This is perhaps the most difficult kind of study. It requires a 
deep knowledge of mankind in general, and of the people to be 
governed, in particular; as also a great compass and variety of 
abilities; especially if the politician would not forget that the 
law of nature, being prior to all particular associations, is the 
first law of the people; and that his being a statesman does not 
preclude his being a man.” (Diderot, Rid. Univ. Lit., Vol. 8, p. 
193). 

Accordingly, history is simply a systematic record of past events 
in which man himself has taken part. History proper is, Chron- 
icle, or a record of successive times; Narrative, or the story of an 
event or cause of events; and Philosophical, or that which con- 
siders the causes of events and resulting consequences. Of these 
three, the latter is the most important, as it is philosophy teach- 
ing by example, or that species of history whose deductions from 
the events it records serve as a basis for the formulating of 
natural social laws, the analysis of the natural causes and bearing 
of the actions of men, which possess real value for humanity. 

This is clearly defined by I. D’Israeli, in his “Curiosities of 
Literature,” p. 340, “The philosophy of history blends the past 
with the present, and combines the present with the future; each 
is but a portion of the other. The actual state of a thing is neces- 
sarily determined by its antecedent, and thus progressively 
through the chain of human existence; while ‘the present is 
always full of the future,’ as Leibnitz has happily expressed the 
idea. 


Shall Jesus Find Faith on Earth? 187 


“A new and beautiful light is thus thrown over the annals of 
mankind, by the analogies and the parallels of different ages in 
succession. How the seventeenth century has influenced the 
eighteenth ; and the results of the nineteenth as they shall appear 
in the twentieth, might open a source of predictions, to which, 
however difficult it might be to affix their dates, there would be 
none in exploring into causes, and tracing their inevitable effects. 

“The multitude live only among the shadows of things in the 
appearances of the present; the learned, busied with the past, 
can only trace whence, and how, all comes; but he, who is one 
of the people and one of the learned, the true philosopher, views 
the natural tendency and terminations which are preparing for 
the future.” 


CHAPTER XXIII. 


1). WHAT IS THE MESSAGE OF THE AGES TO THE 
NATIONS-OF THE PRESENTIERA? 


In his original state man was a noble being; exalted as the 
crown of creation all creatures were subservient. The powers 
and operations of his mind were extensive, capacious and per- 
fect, in a finite sense; capable of contemplating the works of 
God, the Infinite, with pleasure, and of performing His will with- 
out the least deviation. Evidently there is a vast difference be- 
tween man created then in the image of God and the type as 
known to later generations; and in our day the contrast has again 
been mightily intensified by the world war. Satan, without 
doubt, is the glaring intruder, for by disobedience to the Divine 
Will the mind of man became weakened and debased. Instead 
of “evolution,” there has been “devilution” and “revolution” ; and 
man is in a ruined and lost state. The Hebrew for “man” is 
“Enosh,” meaning, “sorrowful, wretched and incurably sick”; 
to denote his condition in his apostasy from God. 


Notice here the silence of history. It cannot tell the story be- 
cause it has no record beyond the Babylonians or the Egyptians, 
and of them only when these nations were in their prime. All it 
can say is that previous to these eras there was at one time a 
golden age; but further than this statement history is uncertain. 
As true as its records may be in other respects, it sets forth noth- 
ing regarding the problem that has burdened the minds of men, 
yet all the while taunting them with the horrible fact of sin, 
passing by stoically and unconcerned on the other side of the 
road. It presents no remedy for the awful scourge. 


It must be said to the credit of history however, though all 
human effort at a solution of the problem of sin has left the 
world worse off, it has proven that the story of the creation as 
found among the Babylonians remarkably resembles that of the 


book of Genesis. And although these writings of a Gentile na- 
188 


Shall Jesus Find Faith on Earth? 189 


tion can only depend on tradition, that of the first chapter of the 
Pentateuch is the most accurate, on account of Divine revelation, 
which was denied every race preceding the dispensation of grace, 
excepting the sons of Abraham. 


Whatever new knowledge may be developed through the dis- 
coveries of the orientalists, whose efforts will no doubt be car- 
ried forward with greater energy in Mesopotamia and in Egypt 
when the Turk with his ignorance and cruel oppression is firmly 
dislodged, will never change the truth as recorded: that God en- 
dowed man with wonderful and independent abilities in body, 
mind and soul, with the power to choose the path of moral right; 
charging him with obedience as the road to security, peace and 
happiness, and warning him that disobedience meant judgment 
and death. 


Possessing therefore a free will to choose and act for himself, 
man in Adam ignominiously fell; he failed in the supreme test 
to choose aright, thereby affecting all mankind, as Frude the his- 
torian declared, “The peculiarities of history are chiefly due to 
the wayward forces of a diversified human nature,” thereby sub- 
stantiating the fact that not only are its pages black with the 
sins of individuals, but with national sins, and sins committed by 
nation against nation. 


History accordingly, is commonly considered as, Ancient, which 
reaches its close with the Western Roman Empire, 476, A.D., in- 
cluding Greek, Roman, Hebrew and Oriental history; then, 
Medieval, from 476 A.D., to the Revival of Learning and the 
Protestant Reformation, 1517 A. D.; and finally, Modern, from 
1517 A.D., to the present era. 


However, we take it for granted, that prophecy, as recorded 
in the Word of God, is history pre-written. It asserts the only 
real philosophy of history, that the outlines and facts of secular 
history are incomplete, and that its philosophy cannot be right- 
ly ascertained unless beginning with the rise of the Babylonians, 
4000 B.C., and specifically in accord with the predictions of the 


190 Shall Jesus Find Faith on Earth? 


Book of Daniel the prophet; which history singularly confirms 
with indisputable precision. 

Our Lord warned His disciples concerning the setting up of 
the “abomination of desolation spoken of by Daniel the prophet.” 
(Matt. 24:15; Mark 13:14). Opposed to this divine statement, it 
is common for destructive critics to deny that there was a prophet 
Daniel, claiming that he never even lived in the days of Nebu- 
chadnezzar, Darius and Cyrus. “They tell us Daniel was simply 
a romancer who lived over two hundred years later and wrote 
his so-called prophecies after they had become history. As a 
simple believer, who owes everything for eternity to what the 
blessed Christ of God accomplished on Calvary’s Cross, I pre- 
fer to accept His testimony, though it were in opposition to all 
the wise men of the day. He declared Daniel was a prophet. 
I stand for the full inspiration of all the reputed word of God, 
and necessarily, therefore, of the book of Daniel.’ (Ironside, 
Dan. Prophet, p. 10). 

And then, as to dreams, which ultra rationalists naturally would 
discard, we recognize with Dr. W. W. Rand, that “God condemned 
all false prophetic dreams if they had any tendency to promote 
idolatry. But the Jews were not forbidden when they thought 
they had a significiant dream to address the prophets of the 
Lord, or the high-priest in his ephod, to have it explained. The 
Lord frequently made known His will in dreams, and enabled 
persons to explain them. Super-natural dreams are distinguished 
from visions, in that the former occurred during sleep, and the 
latter when the person was awake. God spoke to Abimelech in a 
dream, but to Abraham by vision. In both cases He left on the 
mind an assurance of the certainty of whatever He revealed. 
Both are now superseded by the Bible, our sure and sufficient 
guide through earth to heaven.” 

Thus the great image as portrayed in the second and seventh 
chapters of the Prophecy of Daniel, divinely revealed and inter- 
preted, which with Belshazzar’s feast, are connected events, 
peculiarly sets forth the history of the world from the time of 


Shall Jesus Find Faith on Earth? 191 


the Babylonians, and continues, not in accord with any scheme 
of man, but with the Divine Plan of the Ages, culminating in the 
complete reign of Jesus Christ our Lord. From the head of gold 
to the feet of part iron and part clay it contains the history of 
the world in exceptional outline. 


Not “evolutionistic,’ but declining toward decay, it portrays 
the four greatest and only world empires of antiquity, now known 
as four by all historical writers and attested by oriental excava- 
tions: The Assyrio-Chaldaic or Babylonian; the Medo-persian ; 
the Macedonian or Grecian; and the Occidental or Roman. In 
this connection, how applicable the words of Pope, 

“The seas shall waste, the skies in smoke decay, 
Rocks fall to dust, and mountains melt away; 
But fix’d His WORD, His saving power remains, 
Thy realm for ever lasts, thy own Messiah reigns.” 

Within this outline it pleased God to reveal the great events of 
time and the future. History verifies the fact that four times a 
great empire arose to dominate all civilization, to wipe out the 
independence and liberties of weaker nations, to obliterate their 
boundaries by taking over their lands and people, thus eliminat- 
ing their distinctive racial peculiarities and institutions, and swal- 
lowing them in the maw of absolute monarchialism, in opposi- 
tion, and yet singularly in accord with the intent, (Acts 17:26), 
“God that made the world and all things therein, hath made of 
one blood all nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the 
earth, and hath determined the times before appointed, and the 
bounds of their habitation.” 


Gold, silver, brass, iron, and iron mixed with clay, are the 
elements which composed the image as seen in the dream of the 
king. The marks of deterioration are not so much in the 
strength of the metals as in their values. The end of all world 
supremacy as set forth in the decline of value in the metals is 
proclaimed in the prophetic words, “The stone cut out of the 
mountain without hands, smote the image upon his feet that were 


192 Shall Jesus Find Faith on Earth? 


of iron and clay, and brake them to pieces, and set up a king- 
dom which shall never be destroyed.” (Dan. 2:34, 44). 

As we are there told, the head of gold represents the Babylon- 
ian Empire, likened symbolically to “a lion, and had eagle’s wings.” 
(7:4) For three long periods of time, beginning with the build- 
ing of the tower of Babel, (Gen. 11), cited by history, 4000 B. C., 
Babylon became firmly established as a monarchy by Hammurabi, 
2240-2185 B.C., and then, from the fall of Nineveh, the then 
largest and most ancient city of history, built by Nimrod and 
destroyed by Nabopolassar, to the year 538 B. C., this golden 
empire had a distinct advantage in its vast extent and power. 

Among the heroes and despots of antiquity, Nimrod, the actual 
founder of the empire, holds a distinguished place. He was the 
grandson of Ham, the son of Noah, and is the first mentioned who 
appears to have made invasions on the territories of his neigh- 
bors. Having distinguished himself by driving from his country 
the beasts of prey, and engaging in other valorous exploits, he 
appears to have aspired after regal dignity and power, and to have 
assumed the reins of absolute government. He was also the 
first that subverted the patriarchal government; and is supposed 
to have introduced among his subjects the Zabian idolatry, the 
worship of the firmament, sun, moon and stars. 

“The footsteps of this proud and ambitious despot have been 
followed by a train of Alexanders, Cesars, Hannibals, Jenghiz- 
Khans, Attilas, Alarics, Tamerlanes, Marlboroughs, Fredricks, 
Buonapartes, who have driven the ploughshares of devastation 
through the world, erected thrones over the graves of slaughtered 
nations, decorated their palaces with trophies dyed in blood, and 
made the earth to resound with the groans and shrieks of dying 
victims, the voice of lamentation and woe.” (Dick, Christ. Lib. 
vol. 1, p. 776). 

Although Hammurabi following and succeeding in bringing the 
exploits of Nimrod to the foundation of a mighty nation, whose 
empire is styled in history as an “exemplary domain,” and whose 
“code of edicts’ discovered in 1902, resembles the Israelitish 


Shall Jesus Find Faith on Earth? 193 


legislation, it cannot be supposed for this reason that this code can 
in the slightest degree be compared with the exalted character of 
the Pentateuch. With all due regard for his code of edicts or ethics, 
perhaps a partial imitation of the laws of Moses, the fact stands 
substantiated that his ideals did not bind his people to the ex- 
tent of repudiating religious prostitution through consecrated 
_harlots, which are mentioned in the “Codex Hammurabi” with 
the same indifference as any other institution. In comparison, 
with what abhorrence are such abominations condemned in Deut. 
23:18, and Hos. 4:14, which justify the declaration of Herodotus, 
that “temple prostitution is the most shameful custom of the 
Babylonians.” (1:199). 

Under Nebuchadnezzar the empire reached its zenith of world 
power, which was marked with gorgeous splendor, in education, 
the arts and sciences. As a mercantile center the metropolis was 
favorably located on the Euphrates, toward which streamed in- 
numerable caravans from Egypt, Arabia and Asia. Into her 
treasuries flowed the wealth of the then known world. 

With all its wonders, and flourishing for two hundred years in 
a scale of grandeur beyond compare, idolatry, pride, cruelty, op- 
pression, and every abomination known to man, prevailed. Bel, 
Nebo, Merodach, Succoth-benoth, and other idols were wor- 
shipped, in which licentiousness of manners and morals were re- 
ligiously mixed in ritualistic form. The moral ideal of a nation 
is to be discerned in the attributes they lend to their gods. 
Babylonian literature speaks not only of mighty warfare and a 
wonderful civilization, but also concerning their deities, that 
“they drank themselves drunk until their bodies bloated.” (Keil- 
inschrift, Bib. v. 6, p. 9). 

No wonder that God could no longer tolerate the same, no 
wonder that the head of gold fell with Belshazzar, its last king, 
on that memorable night, 538 B. C., when in a drunken stupor 
he was suddenly sobered by the hand writing on the wall of his 
palace, ‘““Mene, Mene, Tekel, Upharsin,’ when Jehova brought 
vengeance for gross insult and licentiousness. Her ruins to this 


194 Shall Jesus Find Faith on Earth? 


day proclaim the divinity of the Holy Scriptures, although the 
destructive critics recognize neither Daniel or Belshazzar. Per- 
haps Lowell had this historical incident in mind when he wrote :— 
“Onee, to every man and nation, comes the moment to decide, 

In the strife of Truth with Falsehood for the good or evil side; 
Some great cause, God’s new Messiah, offering each the bloom or blight, 


Parts the goats upon the left hand and the sheep upon the right. 
And the choice goes by forever ’twixt that darkness and that light.” 


Symbolically likened to ‘a bear with three ribs in its mouth, 
devouring much flesh,” (Dan. 7:5), the Medo-persian Empire, 
500 B. C., was the second overshadowing world power, not only so 
declared by ‘secular history, but again in harmony with the repre- 
sentation of “the breast and arms of silver,’ (Dan. 2), according 
to the prophet’s interpretation. 


Concerning Darius, the conqueror and successor of Belshaz- 
zar, according to Dan. 5:31; 6:1-27; 9:1, history again awaits 
further discoveries, seemingly identical with Gobryas or Astyages, 
a famous Median general. After the fall of Babylonia he was 
made king over the realm of Chaldea. (Dan. 9:1). In turn he 
was conquered by Cyrus, or Xerxes, king of Persia, 519-465 B. 
C., through whom the Medo-persian Empire rose to world power. 
It stretched from India to Europe, including the Hellespont, the 
northern part of Africa and all of Asia westward from India to 
the Mediterranean Sea. Every nation of the world excepting 
Greece was embraced within its borders. Rome was still an un- 
known quantity. Culture, fashion, wealth, the arts and sciences, 
laws and temples were centered at Shushan, the royal city, from 
which were governed one hundred and twenty-seven provinces. 


As a militaristic monarchy it was engaged in continued war- 
fare. What the king decreed could never be revoked, even by 
himself. The Xerxes of secular history is no doubt the Ahasuer- 
us of the book of Esther, at the time of the Jewish exile. The 
Greek historians, acknowledging the Medo-persian invasion of 
Greece, 480 B. C., where the enemy suffered defeat at Salamis, 
with some decipherments of ancient writings, seem to throw 


Shall Jesus Find Faith on Earth? 195 


doubt upon the story of Esther, as also upon the historical ac- 
counts of the fall of Babylon and the feast of Belshazzar, ac- 
cording to the Jewish records, to which modern destructive critics 
have pointed as a flaw or error; but, it is only another attempt of 
the evil one to discredit the Word of God, which evidently is more 
accurate than Herodotus and Xenophon, and wherein Satan 
ignominiously fails to accomplish his purpose. 


As to their religion, after many years of warfare against As- 
syria, the historical record asserts that they gradually conquered 
and amalgamated under successive kings, with one language, the 
Zend, akin to Sanscrit, and one religion, the worship of the ele- 
ments, with Ormuzd, the highest being under the symbol of fire, 
and Ahriman, the so-called second eon, as the inflicter of all evil. 


The priesthood, termed the Magi, cultivated the sciences and 
performed all religious ceremonies. Among these appeared as 
early as their renowned emperor Cyrus, one Zoroaster, a re- 
former, who restored the ancient but degenerated religion of 
light. The book of Esther is in full accord with these facts, 
presenting in miniature also the picture of an annual custom by 
profligate and despotic means to please the people in national 
feasts with elaborate programs of entertainment, lasting one 
hundred and eighty days. Throughout the whole system, the 
true God was utterly unknown or ignored, even with the presence 
of exiled Jews, who ever, to their hatred and oppression held fast 
to their tradition and custom. The empire lasted about two hun- 
dred years, when suddenly Alexander the Great appeared, who 
defeated them at Marathon, 490 B. C. William Cowper truly de- 
clared: 


“Blind unbelief is sure to err, 
And scan His work in vain: 

God is His own Interpreter, 
And He will make it plain.” 


The Macedonian Empire is traced back historically some 4000 
years, B. C., long before the famous Philip, but mainly under his 
more renowned son Alexander the Great, 356-323 B. C., it 


196 Shall Jesus Find Faith on Earth? 


reached the height of its power. Olympias, the mother of Alex- 
ander, claimed him as descended from a god. Mounting the 
throne when only nineteen years of age, with Aristotle the Greek 
philosopher as his educator, Alexander developed into a genius. 
His wonderful exploits and military victories enabled him to 
create the Macedonian-Greek Empire, which as a world power 
is prophetically likened to “a leopard with four wings,” which 
is singular indeed, and in the image of Nebuchadnezzar’s dream 
as “the belly and thighs of brass.” 

In an astonishingly brief period of time he succeeded in 
amalgamating nations of people. He organized the famous 
phalanx and crossed the Hellespont with thirty-five thousand 
men. He proceeded, as with wings, to besiege Tyre, conquered 
Persia and Egypt, a large part of western and southern Asia, in 
fact the whole then known civilized world, which gave him a 
larger realm than any one of his predecessors. 

He founded Alexandria, noted for its library, and made 
Babylon his royal city, where at the early age of thirty-three he 
died after a prolonged debauch. As a despot, he is perhaps 
greater in egotism than in any other achievement; this he person- 
ified, weeping because there were no more worlds to conquer, 
and demanding that every vestige of liberty be held in his own 
mailed fist. 

The empire was then divided between his four generals, the 
“four wings” of prophecy, Seleucus, Lysimachus, Ptolemy, and 
Cassander, at the battle of Ipsus, an ancient town in Phrygia, 301 
B. C., after slaying their common rivals Antigonus and his son 
Demetrius, thereby establishing a co-ordinate dynasty; which 
among other things, enforced the general use of the Greek lan- 
guage and literature, unconsciously thereby preparing the world 
for the spread of the Gospel of Jesus Christ our Lord in the first 
Christian era. 

With the death of Alexander the Great, the decline of the 
empire set in, when at length the Greeks were conquered by the 
Romans under Paulus Aemilius, 168 B. C., who divided Mace- 


Shall Jesus Find Faith on Earth? 197 


donia and Greece into four parts; it being divided again later by 
his successors into two great provinces, Macedonia and Achaia. 
Sir A. Hunt evidences a fact in this connection when he declares: 


“But, what is power?—’Tis not the state 
Of proud tyrants, whom men’s hate, 
To worse than death, 

Can level with a breath— 

Whose term the meanest hand ean antedate— 
The peasant with a heart at ease, 

Is a greater man than these. 

What is grandeur? Not the sheen 

Of silken robes, no, nor the mien 

And haughty eye of old nobility— 
The foolish that is not, but has been. 
The noblest trophies of mankind 

Are the conquests of the mind.” 


After the fall of the Macedonian-Greek Empire, civilization 
marched westward and centered with the rise of Rome around 
the Mediterranean Sea. This fourth world empire is represented 
in the dream of Nebuchadnezzar as “the legs of iron.” Secular 
history here coincides with Dan. 7:7, declaring that it was a 
megatherium of awe and wonder, “dreadful and terrible, and 
strong exceedingly; and it had great iron teeth: it devoured and 
brake in pieces, and stamped the residue with the feet of it: and 
it was diverse from all the beasts that were before it; and it had 
horns.” 


At Actium, an ancient Greek promontory, Anthony was de- 
feated by Octavius, 31-14 B. C., who then introduced the im- 
perialism of the Cesars. Julius Cesar had arisen like an Alexan- 
der, and swept everything before him, first in Gaul, then crossing 
the Rubicon he conquered Pompey and took possession of the 
Republic and established the greatest of all world empires. With 
a population of over one hundred and twenty millions, it would 
be interesting to ascertain the amount of income which prosperous 
Rome at various periods derived from innumerable sources, for 
taxes most burdensome were levied upon rich and poor. We 
have only the general statement, that previous to the time of 
Pompey, the annual revenue amounted to fifty millions of drach- 


198 Shall Jesus Find Faith on Earth? 


mas, and that it was increased by him to eighty-five millions. As 
a drachma was dependent on a certain weight of values in gold 
or silver, the income must have been beyond compare with any- 
thing modern. 

The period during the rule of Nerva, Trajan, Hadrian, and the 
two Antonines, 96-180 A. D., probably marks the high tide of 
civilization in ancient times. According to Edward Gibbon in 
his “The Decline and Fall of Rome,’. in her extension, partition 
and decay, Rome must be looked upon as unique and tremendous. 
Prophecy portrays the same in stately horror, realizing the lurid 
magnificence of the scene. 

Striking is a paragraph from Gibbon in reference to the stoical 
indifference of the Roman toward anything outside himself: 
“The philosophers of Greece deduced their morals from the na- 
ture of man, rather than from that of God. They meditated how- 
ever, on the Divine nature, as a very curious and important 
speculation; and in the profound inquiry, they displayed the 
strength and weakness of the human understanding, inducing 
some to doubt and others to deny the providence of a Supreme 
Ruler. The spirit of inquiry, prompted by emulation, and sup- 
ported by freedom, had divided the public teachers into a variety 
of contending sects; but the ingenuous youth, who from every 
part resorted to Athens, and the other seats of learning in the 
Roman empire, were alike instructed in every school to reject 
and despise the religion of the multitude. How, indeed, was it 
possible, that a philosopher should accept, as divine truths, the 
idle tales of the poets, and the incoherent traditions of antiquity; 
or, that he should adore as gods, those imperfect beings whom he 
must have despised as men. It was indifferent to them what 
shape the folly of the multitude might choose to assume; and 
they approached, with the same inward contempt, and the same 
external reverence, the altars of the Lybian, the Olympian, or the 
Capitoline Jupiter.” (Gibbon, “Decline and Fall of Rome,” vol. 
I, p. 34-35). 

The depravity of Rome therefore consisted, aside from her 


Shall Jesus Find Faith on Earth? 199 


proverbial and consequent immorality, in preferring self to God, 
exclaiming “‘excelsior,”’ to her own vaunting ambition, and agitat- 
ing no other question than “who shall be the greatest?” William 
Shakespeare had this in mind when in his “Julius Czesar” he ex- 
claimed : 


“This man is become a god; and Cassius is 
A wretched creature, and must bend his body, 
If Cesar carelessly but nod on him.” 

' “Why man, he doth bestride the narrow world 
Like a colossus; and we petty men 
Walk under his huge legs (iron) and peep about 
To find ourselves dishonorable graves.” 

Singular it is that in their dispersion the Jews spread far and 
wide the prophecies concerning the Messiah who was the object 
of their desire, and excited a vague expectation of His coming 
among the nations. This is significant in connection with “the 
Stone cut out of the mountain without hands” which shook the 
political world, so that nations were in continued mysterious com- 
motion, as the ocean, when swept by a furious storm, stirred from 
its lowest depths by successive earthquakes. On the billows of 
this tempestuous sea victory and dominion rolled from one empire 
to another, from Assyrio-Chaldea or Babylon, to whose king 
the image was first revealed, to the Medo-persians ; from these to 
the Macedonian-Greeks, whose conquest is symbolized by the 
swift leopard having four wings, its division by four heads; and 
then from the Greeks to the Romans, who looked upon all the 
nations and beheld them tributary. 


However, Rome was diverse from the former three world 
empires in that it was a republic, and primarily that its “iron 
strength” is peculiarly prolonged among the nations which fol- 
lowed, which exist today, still “iron and clay.” In its decline, 
Rome was shaken by civil commotion; not till then did it lay 
aside its ferocious spirit. It is during this universal calm that the 
Messiah, the messenger of peace and salvation appeared, with 
“healing in His wings.” 


It is thus that the four great world empires have passed into 


200 Shall Jesus Find Faith on Earth? 


secular history, and, prophetically taken together, as seen in the 
image of Nebuchadnezzar’s dream, they form “the man of sin,” 
who finally and more thoroughly will be personified as the Anti- 
christ, who for a time will rule with a rod of iron over the destiny 
of the last world empire. “And he shall speak great words against 
the most High, and shall wear out the saints of the most High, and 
think to change times and laws: and they shall be given into his 
hand until a time and times and the dividing of time.” (Dan. 7: 
24-25; 8:23-25). 

The image of Nebuchadnezzar is therefore, as “the man of 
sin,’ typical of the impiety and doom of Gentile power, for as 
nations forget and trample on God’s moral law and His divine 
grace, sooner or later come tragic sorrow and ruin. Rightly to 
read history then is to read it in connection with prophecy, and 
wisely to compare them will prove pre-eminently profitable, if 
the people and the nations of the modern world would heed the 
Divine warning and follow in the strait and narrow path. 


CHAPTER XXIV. 


2)aAke THES CEADING GOVERNMENTS: OF THE 
PRESENT TIME INTERPRETING THE MESSAGE IN- 
ee INA ICY ORT CARE. DHE Ye DRIVING -BEINDLY 
LOWARD THE KOCKS ON; WHICH SO* MANY SHIPS 
Oia eA bE abOUNDEREDIN: THE PAST? 


The prophetic image of world domination is not complete until 
we take into consideration the “ten toes,’ which as interpreted 
by Daniel, were shrouded in mysterious words, “iron partly mixed 
with clay.”’ Once again history conforms to prophecy, whatever 
theorizers and post millennialists may assert to the contrary. 


After the fifth century the western provinces of Rome, because 
it had collasped as a world power, became independent states, 
seldom since as ten in number, oftener more. In 1870 A. D., 
there were twenty-three kingdoms. Previous to the world war 
there were sixteen, and the peace terms may reduce them to 
ten, or, ten kingdoms within the boundary of the old Roman 
empire, may form a federation, a league of nations to “try” to 
prevent further war. 

Call it “madness” or “pessimistic dreaming” to proceed with 
prophecy in connection with secular history from this point; but, 
without apology, which the truth never offers, it remains never- 
theless the only real and optimistic solution to the greatest prob- 
lem of the ages, and the philosophy of history can be traced in 
no other way, although prophecy does outreach history. If there 
is a better solution, we fail to comprehend it. 


The great epochs in the gradual rise of “the man of sin,” 
which secular history signalizes, are intrinsically of greater im- 
portance than generally imagined. Shall man continually op- 
pose him, shackled, without redress, a willing victim of suicide? 
That certainly would be in line with Schopenhauer’s theory: 
“Enjoy the world as long as you can, and then seek death quick- 


ly and secretly.” Or, as one of our modernists recently declared, 
201 


202 Shall Jesus Find Faith on Earth? 


“Deny the first cause,—the faith in the Bible: for my intellect 
has fathomed everything knowable; hereafter I shall blast the 
hopes of mankind, and with them take the consequences.” The 
principles of such men evidently savor of santanic insanity. 

Is the eternal Father and God, who foresaw things past and 
things to come, to be forever dishonored and dethroned by His 
fallen creatures, in view of His wonderful plan of the ages, to 
lovingly redeem them and rule in equity? Shall not the hydra- 
headed serpent, the cause of evil and chaos, be crushed beneath 
the heel of the Conqueror? Shall He not completely vanquish 
His enemies on the very field of His triumphs? 

Many notable atheistic minds have been unconscious slaves to 
“the man of sin,’ setting forth in bold relief the very thoughts 
their minds opposed, foretelling what they saw, “not knowing 
what they did,’ and in their wrath have been made to praise 
God. Porphyry, Gibbon, Hume, Voltaire, Ingersoll, Paine; what 
rage is yours in scanning now your former assertions. And our 
position is half the same. Shall we warningly learn from them, 
perhaps accepting the prophecies of the past as they have dove- 
tailed the facts of history, and yet stubbornly ignore the scrip- 
tural outline of what history will be concerning the future judg- 
ments climaxed in a golden age of righteousness and peace? Has 
not God clearly pointed the way of the future history of the 
world with inspired declarations ? 

As never before, the statesmen of nations are concerned about 
a league of nations. Among many others, this is indeed a force- 
ful sign of the times. It is not a new idea. It is represented in 
“the ten toes” of the image in Nebuchadnezzar’s dream. History 
confirms the fact that Henry of Navarre outlined such a league. 
Kant the philosopher, discussed the idea. William Penn, the 
genial Quaker and friend of mankind, had a league of nations in 
his plan of a new country. Abbe de Saint-Pierre, and many 
other eminent men have proclaimed such a league, whilst Dante 
in his writings referred to it several times. Early in the seven- 
teenth century Hugo Grotius was at work on his book, “De Jure 


Shall Jesus Find Faith on Earth? 203 


Belli et Pacis,” which laid the foundation of international law. 
Progressive nations have been venturing to build on this founda- 
tion ever since. A war like the most recent one is likely to give 
misgivings as to whether success is ever to follow the course in- 
itiated in state craft by Hugo Grotius. 

Long before any of these thinkers mentioned the league, Dr. 
C. M. Sheldon, recently declared, that “Isaiah, (2:4), the proph- 
et, proclaimed the ideal league,” which will be in vogue during the 
millennium, “‘and the main difference between his and the others 
mentioned, is that he puts Jehova at the head, and makes Him 
the Judge and Arbiter of the destinies of nations. Isaiah’s 
league says that the nations must come to God and walk in His 
ways. Will labor and capital do that? Will the different political 
parties stop their political bickerings, and walk in God’s ways? 
Will the different nationalities sink their racial prejudices and 
agree to act for a common good? Will the daily papers that 
fight one another and print unnecessary sensations and call it 
news, change their habits and walk in Jehova’s ways and let Him 
map out the plan of a league? 

“This is too big a business to be entrusted to mere men for 
planning and carrying out. Men are not wise enough to carry 
this gigantic thing through successfully. The first thing to do 
according to Isaiah, is for the nations to acknowledge God, and 
place Him at the head of the table. Surely, if the world ever 
needed divine wisdom it needs it now. ‘To neglect the source 
of power at this juncture in the history of the race is the great- 
est folly. It is safe to say that no league of nations that leaves 
God out of its constitution will endure the test of man’s selfish- 
ness. Wars will not cease, and the weapons of warfare will not 
be beaten into implements of industry until the nations acknowl- 
edge God (Jesus Christ) in the affairs of men.” 

Thus we find the modern age with all those preceding, in op- 
position to the dispensational plan of God, clearly revealed. The 
world never knew such perilous times. The warning, because 
of apostasy is set forth in the words, “This know also, that in 


204 Shall Jesus Find Faith on Earth? 


the last days perilous times shall come.” (2 Tim. 3:1). In the 
face of the facts can it be truthfully denied that we are living 
in the last days of the dispensation of grace? The signs of the 
times ‘tell us that the great war has left us in the same condition 
in which infidelity always predominated. 

Socialism, communism, bolshevism, today are running riot. No 
nation is safe, all are clearly mad. A _ so-called civilization, 
synonymous with a laodicean Christianity has collapsed. Proper- 
ty is irretrievably destroyed. Millions of lives sacrificed. Widows 
and orphans cry for bread and clothing. Natural affections are 
blotted out. Cruel lust and passion rule. Drunkenness and 
hatred in itisane orgy, everywhere. 

Christianity seems utterly helpless to control the lust for blood 
and revenge. Paganism is on the verge of barbarism. Dr. E. S. 
Martin, in Harper’s Magazine, Sept. 1918, an eminent American 
historian, watched the beginnings of the war of all the nations 
with forebodings, and declared that “if it lasted long enough it 
would end in the collapse of national credit, followed by the col- 
lapse of private credit, and then a return to primitive conditions 
and the support of what life remained by personal agriculture. It 
has not come to that yet, in this country at least, but it has made 
undeniable progress in that direction. 

“Until recently the opinion prevailed that our civilization, with 
all its defects, was certainly on the right track and far better and 
more promising than any civilization that had preceded it. Men 
saw its “incomparable progress” in mechanics and _ scientific 
knowledge, and its apparent extrication from dreadful errors that 
had harassed their fathers, and looked for such a multiplication 
and exchange of commodities as would abolish poverty, and for 
such an expansion of liberty, order and the rule of wisdom as 
should presently stabilize the happiness of mankind. But all 
these expectations have been rudely shaken. 

“Everything to which we trusted “to smooth the process of 
universal salvation,” is now again under critical scrutiny. We 
doubt that this age of mechanism will turn out to be a valid mil- 


Shall Jesus Find Faith on Earth? 205 


lennium. We doubt that, after all, coal and iron and copper and 
organization and efficiency are destined to save mankind. We 
see all the resources of science, all the products of all the brains 
and all factories applied either to destroy humanity or to palli- 
ate a little that destruction. We see the world that the doctors 
were busy making germ proof suddenly overwhelmed by a hor- 
rible disease that neither medical nor scientific nor theological 
acumen at all avails to check. Raging and ravaging it spreads 
from nation to nation, till observers call its course the greatest 
tragedy in recorded history. Mankind is sick. The war, like any 
other disease, is a symptom. What is going on is a tremendous 
effort to throw off some poison from the human system.”’ 

The majority of our so-called “optimists,” however, would 
never assent to this fact, declaring rather, that “this is simply 
God’s way of accomplishing some great purpose.” The trouble 
with that assertion is, that man’s wickedness is too apparent in it 
all, where fools choose the shifting sands, leaving the solid rock, 
the Word of God, which ever shall endure. 

And, no wonder; for a hundred years destructive criticism 
judged the things of God, dethroned Him, and in His stead deified 
selfishness in the form of a so-called “super-man,” on the basis 
of evolution. Then something snapped. Suddenly, and to the 
amazement and unpreparedness of all, the world’s seismograph 
needle was shattered by a volcanic eruption that shook the earth 
to its very foundations. Licentiousness ran riot in State and 
Church, leading to a war which not only sent millions to an un- 
simely grave, but staggered what remained with spiritual and 
financial bankruptcy. 

Is not this clearly in line with the last stage of the worldly 
Church, Laodicea? Is this not in accord with prophecy and the 
warnings of history? What an incomparable description of the 
history of the Church is revealed in the second and third chapters 
of the Apocalypse, “the golden candle-stick?”’ It clearly por- 
trays, as intended, the degree of spirituality for the several 
periods of Church history, wherein only the Church of Philadel- 


206 Shall Jesus Find Faith on Earth? 


phia is commended for her faith, the spirit of missions, evangel- 
ism, and the unmuzzled diffusion of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. 
It is the kernel of the shell of the Church of this age, of whom 
it is said, “I know thy works: behold, I have set before thee an 
open door, and no man can shut it: for thou hast a little strength, 
and hast kept MY WORD, and hast NOT denied my NAME.” 

Distinguishing the marks of the Church of this age as they fit 
into the prophetic picture, with all “the signs of the times,’ which 
the Christian is to watch carefully, because of the imminent com- 
ing of the Lord, “as a thief in the night,” it is most significant in 
this connection, to notice the gradual formation of the “ten king- 
doms,” which are to occupy the territory of the Roman empire, 
outlined by Gibbon in his “Decline and Fall of the Roman Em- 
pire,’ into a so-called “League of Nations,’ which will help to- 
ward the fulfillment of prophecy, when finally Jehova “shall 
judge among tthe nations.” (Isa. 2:4). 

The “ten toes’ of the great image, made of iron mixed with 
clay, are therefore weak and brittle. (Dan. 2:42-43). Iron 
represents militarism. Clay represents democracy, or, the peo- 
ple ruling. Nationalism, democracy and federation are therefore 
growing signs of the last, the peoples’ government. The purpose 
of Daniel’s prophecy then, is to prove that these “ten kingdoms,” 
once under the Roman jurisdiction, will be federated into a 
democracy, the nucleus of which is now forming, which will have 
as its head one whose power will be conferred upon him by the 
people, and for a time his rule will represent a recoil from mili- 
tarism, in order to avoid future wars. 

The final head of this world federation will be ‘the “man of 
sin,’ the Satan energized Antichrist, who will rule with a rod 
of iron during the “great tribulation,” the darkest period of all 
time, which “the called out ones” will not experience, having 
been removed from the scene of disaster. This is not only evi- 
dent from the parable of “the ten virgins,” or, 1 Thess. 4, but 
particularly from the description of the laodicean world church, 
where the place of Christ is no longer at the altar, but outside, 


Shall Jesus Find Faith on Earth? 207 


knocking for entrance, which call seems to indicate the fulfill- 
ment of 1 Thess. 4:14-17, after which the word “Church” does 
not again occur in the book of Revelation. 

In his “Lectures on Daniel,’ (p. 134), H. A. Ironside says, 
“Daniel naturally desired fuller information as to the meaning 
of the fourth beast, and especially of the little horn, that had 
eyes, and a mouth that spake very great things: whose look was 
more stout than his fellows, who rooted up three of the ten 
horns, and who made war with the saints and prevailed against 
them; until the Ancient of days came, and judgment was given 
to the saints of the most high (places); and the time came that 
the saints possessed the kingdom. In answer to Daniel’s inquiry, 
the angel explained that out of the fourth kingdom (place of the 
former Roman empire), shall arise the ten kings, clearly at one 
time. From among these ‘another’ shall arise after them, who 
Shall be diverse from the first, and shall subdue three of them. 

“He will be characterized by blaspheming the name of the 
Most High. He can be none other than the beast of Rev. 13 and 
17, who will persecute the saints of the most high places, the 
Remnant saints, of whom Scripture has much to say in connec- 
tion with the last days. He it is of whom we read in the oth. 
chapter also, who shall confirm a covenant with the Jews for 
seven years, but who shall violate his covenant in the midst 
of a specified period; and, as here stated, shall think to change 
times and laws: and they shall be given into his hand until 
a time and times and the dividing of time: that is, he will 
be the persecutor of the Jewish Remnant for the last three years 
and a half of the Time of the End. But at the expiration of that 
time the judgment will sit, and the Lord Himself shall return 
from heaven, and his dominion shall be taken away, and the 
Antichrist himself, as we learn from Rev. 19, be cast alive into 
the lake of fire.” 

In accordance with this prophecy, the trend of history will 
prove that the idolatrous governments of the world will be 
crushed by “the Stone cut out of the mountain without hands, 


208 Shall Jesus Find Faith on Earth? 


that break in pieces the iron, the brass, the clay, the silver, and 
the gold; for, the great God hath made known what shall come 
to pass; and the dream is certain, and the interpretation thereof 
Sure, wedi 2 a5) 

Dare so-called “culture” set this marvelous revelation aside? 
It will do it no good. Blindness, however, possesses men in their 
boast of a civilization, that the war has scorned and broken, a 
“progress” that is hindered, science and invention that are used 
mainly for destruction, mere tools to steal, to kill and destroy; 
and even “religious movements” that lack soul and therefore life. 
Apostasy is therefore the erupting volcano in the midst of the 
sea of nations. Governments and peoples will not recognize 
the warning to interpret the message intelligently, and necessarily 
they are driving blindly toward the rocks on which so many ships 
of state have foundered in the past. 

“Failure” is the handwriting on the wall. Not able to de- 
cipher the mystery, men are asking for a sign, who cannot even 
discern the signs of the times. They say, “If some one returned 
from the other world, we would believe. But, would they? If 
they hear not Moses and the prophets, not even if one rise from 
the dead, will they be persuaded. A wicked and adulterous gen- 
eration seeketh after a sign; and there shall no sign be given unto 
it, but the sign of the prophet Jonas.” (Matt. 16 and Luke 16). 
That sign clearly typified the death, resurrection and reappearance 
of the Redeemer, Lord and King. 

What pity that men are too stubborn to repent and behold the 
evidence of a fast approaching judgment upon the apostate na- 
tions. He alone is the Interpreter of the covenant of God. He 
alone discloses the mystery hidden from the foundation of the 
world. 

Apostasy has written “failure” large on the pages of history, 
so that he who runs may read, amid all the glamour of man’s 
best endeavors. Scientific education, the supposed panacea, but 
misapplied, has brought unrest to every land, and left for Christ 
“no room in the inn.” Naturally, what confusion, what perver- 


Shall Jesus Find Faith on Earth? 209 


sion, what false and indefensible exegesis, seeking through post- 
millennial doctrines to bring “peace where there is no peace,” 
and turn aside the Church from her true mission to the impos- 
sible task of establishing the Kingdom in the absence of the 
King. No wonder the general cry, “Where is now your God?” 
and, “Christianity is a Failure.” Their declarations must make 
angels weep and demons roar with laughter. 

Since the war, however, many are beginning to realize the 
hazardous nature of their defense. Their attitude toward 
evidence has been as the dauntless attitude of Huxley’s milk- 
woman, who when confronted with a stickleback in the milk, said 
compassionately, “Sure then, it must have been bad for the poor 
cow when that came through her teat.’ Many are coming to 
meditate more and more upon the Gospel story, the plans and 
promises of God, to see that sound thinking demands the ac- 
ceptance of the facts as well as the truth they imply. They are 
coming to see that the history of philosophy is a graveyard of 
dead systems that at one time or other claimed finality and ac- 
ceptance from all up-to-date thinkers. The systems of today 
are in preparation for the same fate. 

In the midst of common honesty and sound historical perspec- 
tive, which, thank God, in these perilous times are yet possible, 
God being ever true and the same, whispers comfortingly, “Be 
still, and know, that I am God.” “If any man love not the Lord 
Jesus Christ, let him be ANATHEMA MARAN-ATHA,” (1 
Cor. 16:22), which is, “accursed, our Lord cometh”; for Christ 
is God’s final and only sign for individuals and for nations, usher- 
ing in the new age, the theocratic Kingdom, wherein dwelleth 
righteousness, as Horatius Bonar exclaims: 


oad Wind tcke eer happy earth. 
Guilty, but now forgiven; 
From which has been expelled 
The all-defiling leaven. 

Oh what a day is thine, 

The brightest of the seven. 
The day of days, ere long 

To be in mercy given, 

When heaven shall be on earth 
And earth shall be all heaven.” 


CHAPTER XXV. 


3). THE “CHRISTIAN. PHILOSOPELY sIN ES Tee 
AND THE EXERTION OF FORCE.IN THE PRESEN 
AGE. 


The Pagan world fell from the knowledge of God by turn- 
ing toward the worship of its heroes, mere men, who ofttimes 
proved most vicious in character, thus gradually developing a 
system of polytheism, stupendous in outline; and the natural 
sequence was the corruption of morals, which proved the fore- 
runner of dissolution. Although their civil authorities executed 
some very excellent laws, yet their philosophers, upon whom the 
law-givers depended, frequently asserted statements that were 
contradictory to right principle, whereby they proved themselves 
inconsistent and detrimental to a high standard of ethics. 


While this condition generally prevailed, it pleased God to 
raise up a people that in a peculiar way were to work out His will 
upon the earth, that should become the depository of the knowl- 
edge, ordinances, laws and promises of God, and in whom the 
nations of the earth were to be blessed. He selected the seed of 
Abraham, children of the desert sands, of lonely mountain re- 
gions, of vast expanses of the starry heavens. In these people, 
living amidst the elemental forces of nature, He laid the founda- 
tion of a race of men that should give a later era its highest re- 
ligious and ethical conceptions. 


During a long period of time, while God centered His affec- 
tions upon this peculiar people, the Pagan nations, left alone, 
were permitted to progress in their own way; with all the intel- 
lectual achievements, prosperity, resources, greatness and power 
to which they attained, it was a recognized fact with Jehova that 
they eventually would fail to acquire a moral standard by way of 
the natural mind of man, which in any wise could redeem them 
from their bondage, and therefore they fell deeper and deeper 


into idolatry and its attending abominations. 
210 


Shall Jesus Find Faith on Earth? Zieh 


Opportunely Jehova raised up Moses, one of the sublimest 
characters in history, through whom the Decalogue, with its at- 
tending statutes and judgments were revealed. Surprisingly in- 
deed, these laws soon found imitation among other nations, con- 
cerning which Moses declared, “Keep therefore, and do them; 
for this is your wisdom and your understanding in the sight of 
nations, which shall hear all these statutes, and say, Surely this 
great nation is a wise and understanding people.” (Deut. 4:6). 

Eusebius, citing Artapanus, substantiates the fact that the na- 
tions borrowed much from Moses. And yet, it has been ex- 
perimentally proven that these laws of God as presented through 
the Lawgiver Moses, could not be universally applied, first, be- 
cause of a general rejection of Jehova as God, and then, because 
these laws were intended for the “‘chosen people.” 

As a last resort, in accordance with the plan of God from the 
foundation of the world, in the fulness of time and in compassion 
on the wretched state of mankind, Jew and Gentile, the long- 
suffering God found it wise to “make Himself of no reputation, 
and took upon Him the form of a servant, and was made in the 
likeness of men: and being found in fashion as a man, He 
humbled Himself, and became obedient unto death, even the 
death of the Cross, wherefore God also hath highly exalted 
Him, and given Him a name which is above every name: that at 
the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, 
and things in earth, and things under the earth; and that every 
tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory 
of God the Father.” (Phil. 2:7-8). 

It is therefore as the incarnate God that Jesus Christ our Lord, 
brought, taught, and exemplified in His own person a code of 
ethics which has entered into and transformed every known 
factor of society, science, art, literature, even to the extent that 
the greatest minds, men like Shakespeare, Kepler, Savonarola, 
Galileo, Milton, Luther, Newton, Bacon, Tennyson, and many 
others, in their several departments, sing His praise above every 
name. 


212 Shall Jesus Find Faith on Earth? 


Significant is the fact that a man like Napoleon, who when 
exiled on St. Helena should say to Count Montholon, “Can you 
tell me who Jesus Christ was?” And when the Count declined 
to answer, he said, according to Lockwood’s History of Napo- 
leon, “Well then, I will tell you. Alexander, Cesar, Charle- 
magne and I have founded great empires; but upon what did 
these creations depend? Upon force. Jesus has founded His 
empire upon love, and to this very day millions would die for 
Him. I think I understand something of human nature, and I 
tell you all these were men, and I am a man. No one else is 
like Him. Jesus Christ was more than a man. I have inspired 
multitudes with such devotion that they would have died for 
me, but to do this it was necessary that I should be visibly 
present, with the electric influence of my looks, of my words, of 
my voice. When I saw men and spoke to them I lighted up the 
flames of self-devotion in their hearts. 

“Christ alone has succeeded in so raising the mind of man to- 
ward the unseen that it becomes insensible to the barriers of time 
and space. Across a chasm of eighteen hundred years Jesus 
Christ makes a demand which is, above all others, difficult to 
satisfy. He asks for that which a philosopher may often seek in 
vain at the hands of his friends, or a father of his children, or a 
bride of her spouse, or a man of his brother. He asks for the 
human heart. He will have it entirely to Himself. He demands it 
unconditionally, and forthwith His demand is granted. Wonder ful! 
In defiance of time and space, the soul of man with all its powers 
becomes an annexation to the empire of Christ. All who sincere- 
ly believe in Him experience that remarkable supernatural love 
towards Him. This phenomenon is unaccountable; it is altogether 
beyond the scope of man’s creative power. Time, the great de- 
stroyer, is powerless to extinguish the sacred flame; time can 
neither exhaust its strength nor put a limit to its range. This it 
is which strikes me most. I have often thought of it. This it 
1s which proves to me the divinity of Jesus Christ.” 

In the sentiment also of Jean Paul Richter, “Jesus Christ is 


Shall Jesus Find Faith on Earth? 213 


the holiest among the mighty, the mightiest among the holy, who 
lifted with His pierced hands empires off their hinges, and turned 
the stream of centuries out of its channel, and still governs the 
ages.” It is thus that friends and enemies alike acknowledge 
His authority, and because of which, “God commandeth all men 
everywhere to repent; for He hath appointed a day in which He 
will judge the world in righteousness by THAT MAN whom He 
hath ordained; whereof He hath given assurance to all men, in 
that He hath raised Him from the dead.” (Acts 17:30-31). 

This fact of a judgment, concerning which His resurrection is 
a guaranty, is therefore certain, even as the record of history 
bears testimony. Noah prophesied the flood; the Angel predicted 
the destruction of Sodom; the prophets foretold the doom of 
Egypt, Tyre, Sidon, Philistia and Babylon; and men ridiculed 
when Jesus spoke concerning the collapse of the Temple at Jeru- 
salem, but the armies under Titus and Vespasian, 70 A. D., left 
no stone unturned in their purpose. His enemies also mocked 
while hanging on the Cross, yet His resurrection remains the 
ever sufficient warrant that He will judge righteously. 

Knowing this, men are to “add to faith virtue; to virtue knowl- 
edge; to knowledge temperance; to temperance patience; to 
patience godliness; and to godliness brotherly kindness; and to 
brotherly kindness charity.” (2 Pet. 1:5-7). In harmony with 
many other articles of the revealed will of God, here is set forth 
a complete rule of life, as required in reference to our relation- 
ship toward God, our neighbor, and ourselves, as well as nations 
toward each other, by living soberly, righteously and godly in 
this present world. 

That which binds all the laws of God is at the same time the 
chief end of man; to glorify and enjoy Him forever. This is the 
key-stone of the arch engraved with the Name of names. What- 
ever is contained in the Law and the Prophets concerning the 
nature and attributes of the Divine Being, bears singular rela- 
tionship to Jesus the Messiah, later set forth more clearly in the 

. Sermon on the Mount and other portions of the New Testament, 


214 Shall Jesus Find Faith on Earth? 


where it is learned that in Him is no variableness nor shadow of 
turning; that in Him we live, and move, and have our being; 
who governs all things well; the Beginning and the End. Just 
and holy, He is filled with love and mercy toward all men; yet 
will measure and judge righteously on the basis of the moral 
law those who are under the law. 

Loving “the Lord with all heart, soul, mind and strength, 
as the first commandment, the second is like, namely this, Thou 
shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. There is none other greater 
than these.’ (Mark 12:30-31). Here men are to deal justly, 
mercifully, virtuously; in relieving distress, in leading sinners to 
repentance and thus to the Cross of forgiveness; to honor God 
among all men; to render good for evil; to pray for them that 
despitefully use them; to be epistles known and read of all men; 
and, “whatsoever ye would that men should do unto you, do ye 
even so to them.” (Matt. 7:12). Thus in digested form we have 
a Bill of Rights in comparison with which that of King John is 
but a trifle; it is a Magna Charta, granted by God Himself for 
the moral uplift of all men. 

There are also many rules for personal conduct whereby we 
are to regulate and govern our affections, appetites, passions and 
temper. To show forth at all times meekness, forbearance, long- 
suffering kindness and benevolence. There are instances cited as 
against lust, polygamy, divorce, intemperance and gluttony; not 
to place confidence and happiness in worldly wealth, but to 
make proper use of riches as stewards that must give an account. 

Concerning nations and their rulers, in their relationship to- 
ward Jesus Christ, which by no means are exempt from the 
moral law, we read, “He is the Governor among the nations.” 
(Ps. 22). “By Him kings reign and princes decree justice.” 
(Prov. 8). “He standeth in the congregation of the mighty, 
He judgeth among the gods.” (Ps. 82). “He shall strike through 
kings in the day of His wrath.” (Ps. 110). “The nation and 
kingdom that will not serve thee shall perish, yea those nations 
shall be utterly wasted.” (Is. 60). “The kingdom shall break in 


Shall Jesus Find Faith on Earth? 215 


pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand forever.” 
(Dan. 2). “All power is given unto Me in heaven and earth, 
go ye therefore and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name 
of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost: teaching them to observe 
all things whatsoever I have commanded.” ‘Who hath set Him 
at His right hand in the heavenly places, far above all prin- 
cipality, and power, and might, and dominion, and every name 
that is named, not only in this world, but also in that which is 
to come; and hath put all things under His feet, and gave Him 
to be head over all things to the Church.” (Matt. 28; Eph. 1). 


This briefly is the distinguishing character of the philosophy of 
Christ Jesus our Lord, which in a word may be summarized, 
“Whatsoever things are true, venerable, just, lovely, good report, 
if there be any virtue, any praise, think on these things.” (Phil. 
4:8). Accordingly, the purpose of the moral law is as a school- 
master, to bring us to Christ in His wonderful grace, making 
it possible of universal and perpetual application. It was founded 
on the nature of man in his relationship toward the Creator and 
his fellow-men, and is binding for ever and ever. Surveying the 
whole, we are now brought to consider briefly in their order, the 
Introductory, the Experimental and the Transforming stages of 
the Christian philosophy in secular history. 


The introductory stage of the Christian philosophy in history 
naturally began with the incarnation of “the Sun of Righteous- 
ness,’ who in the fulness of time beheld the nations passing in 
review, headed by their kings and rulers, to whom He exclaimed, 
“Thy Light Is Come!” Judah, Greece and Rome tried in their 
blindness to extinguish that Light, but a spark of it remained to 
flicker in the night, and through persecution it was fanned to flare 
and shine more brightly in the lives of some of the sublimest 
types of human character, thus establishing the Church. Their 
blood fertilized the soil for the propagation of the mustard seed, 
which astonishingly grew and spread beyond the palms of Judea, 
the cedars of Lebanon, in advance of the laurel trees of Greece 


216 Shall Jesus Find Faith on Earth? 


and above the elms of Rome, so that the birds (nations) of the 
air came and lodged in the branches. (Matt. 13). 

This period is marked by history from the death of Christ, His 
resurrection and ascension, to John the Apostle, 100 A. D., to 
Marcus Aurelius, emperor of Rome, and then to Constantine the 
Great, 325 A. D., wherein loyalty of love and earnestness of labor 
for Christ and His principles stand out prominent. However, 
the subtle leaven of evil is already manifest in the gradual cool- 
ing of the love and zeal of some, the false profession of others, 
and the incoming of active influences of carnal ambition. Upon 
the foundation established by Christ, the schools of philosophical 
research received a new impetus, holding firmly, however, to 
cosmological and anthropological principles, basing them upon 
the teachings of Christ, in their relationship to the consciousness 
of law, sin and redemption. 

In the experimental stage of the Christian philosophy in his- 
tory, (325-1517 A. D.), a slow but sure progress seems evident, 
hindered early, however, by the rise to power on the part of 
the clergy, and difference of opinion on the relationship of sin 
and grace and the person of Christ, which marked the Nicene 
Council, 325 A. D., with a controversal spirit. Then a serious op- 
position arose between those who represented abstruse inquiry 
and those standing for dogmatism, which continued until the 
‘establishment of the Roman Hierarchy in the fifth century, when 
evil Nicolaitan tenets and simony became common practices, and 
the “Platonizing Fathers of the Church” led the way in attempt- 
ing to test the facts of the doctrines of Christ in the crucible of 
the ancient philosophy. 

Within this long period of time there is recognized more and 
more the disappearance of faith, and clericalism gradually form- 
ing itself into a dominating factor. Now the Church enters into 
a marriage relationship with the powers of the world. It is an 
age of the revival of learning, of purple and glory for the cor- 
rupt and ambitious priesthood of the Church, and the hiding of 
the pure evangelical truth, an age of clerical domination, the 


Shall Jesus Find Faith on Earth? 207, 


Church usurping the place of Christ, and many of the true wit- 
nesses of Jesus forcibly given over to dungeons and inquisitions, 
too horrible for description, and proving it one of the blackest 
pages of history. 

Philosophical speculation during this period, in line with the 
ecclesiastical situation, produced the consciousness of a contrast 
between God and His world, holiness and sin, priesthood and 
laity, Church and State. Yet, throughout, the principles of 
Christianity nevertheless were mysteriously sustained by Divine 
power, and in meeting the test for the needs of mankind, it proved 
its validity when, for instance, “Humanism” arose, which re- 
acted upon the old order, making possible the revival of a more 
vital Christianity and a momentous activity of mind. 

Christianity also here proved itself equal to meeting the op- 
positions of science falsely so-called, by saving from the ruins 
of the Pagan past what was good, developing truths that helped 
to a return of apostolic faith, sending forth to other nations the 
principles of Christ, in such men as Ulfilus the apostle to the 
Goths ; Patrick to Ireland ; Augustine to England; Martin of Tours 
and Boniface to Central Europe; Columban to Gaul and Switzer- 
land, and Francis Xavier to heathen lands beyond the sea. Dur- 
ing this period also the Saracen, taking possession of the tomb 
of Christ, Christendom arose in the form of the Crusades, and 
although the awful superstition of an empty grave ina dark age 
caused much innocent blood to flow freely, it proved the type of 
intelligence and religion prevalent during the dark ages. 

The transforming stage now dates from the Reformation, 1517 
A. D., to the present time. History marks this period from the 
days of the revival of learning to the inauguration of Foreign 
Missions for the evangelization of the world. This is the period 
from the days of iniquity of the previous period to separation 
and some vigorous return to the rule of Christ, when the Word of 
God, so long chained and forgotten, was translated and sent 
broadcast as it reestablished the Pauline doctrine of justification 
by faith, as opposed to justification by good works alone, the 


218 Shall Jesus Find Faith on Earth? 


age of a new beginning, largely freed from the Balaamitic doc- 
trine, the Nicolaitan tenets and the fornications of Jezebel, an age 
of many worthy names, as those of the Reformers; but an age 
also marked with deadness in its tendency toward spiritual 
lethargy. 

More accurately the spiritual condition of this remarkable 
period may be likened to a sculptor’s compass gradually widen- 
ing. The one arm represents a closer adherence to the Word in 
its practical bearings, more fraternity among professed Chris- 
tians, and a livelier philanthropy toward the suffering and 
ignorant. The other represents a stage termed “neither hot nor 
cold,” distinguished by lukewarmness on the part of professing 
Christians, self-satisfaction in material and intellectual progress. 
It is a condition of self-deception in estimating life’s peace to be 
gained in pleasure, luxury, riches and honor, by which men even 
hope to nourish and advance religious life. 

The same tendency is the experience of speculative philosophy 
during this period, evidencing for a time a consciousness of 
former contrasts, and trying to reestablish a reconciliation by 
uniting patristic philosophy and theological thought in closest 
relationship, wherein it utterly failed, even as our more modern 
philosophers also labored through logical arrangement to com- 
bine the ancient philosophy with the more recent, upon a scientific 
basis, which effort evidently culminated into a system of force. 

A few years ago a political orator prefaced his remarks by - 
producing a coin as an object lesson. On the one side of this 
piece of money was the face of Napoleon, and on the other that 
of Jesus Christ. It was regarded by the speaker as a cherished 
relic of the past; but, it might just as well be in circulation today 
for all the disregarded lesson it teaches. It certainly represents 
a divided allegiance. As the old worship of power held sway 
throughout the ages, so the scourge of Europe before Welling- 
ton immortalized Waterloo, had a strange career; satan’s tool, 
but God’s revenge. 

As divine love and material force are opposites, we are also 


Shall Jesus Find Faith on Earth? 219 


reminded of the incident, when in July 1914, commissioners from 
the civilized nations of Europe and America met in session in 
Constance, Germany, philosophizing on the world’s supposed ap- 
proach to a millennial civilization, “without Jesus Christ being 
taken into consideration or even mentioned.” However, before 
they were in any way finished, their dream was shattered at their 
very door by the booming of Howitzer guns, and all the religious 
world suddenly awakened by the shock, cried, “Has Mars, the 
God of War Eclipsed Jesus, the Prince of Peace?” 


Whilst the Christian philosophy suddenly disappeared, the 
philosophy of force now became concrete, belching forth invec- 
tives from all types of sources, newspaper and magazine propa- 
ganda, political diplomacy and intrigue, instruments of warfare 
adapted for wholesale murder in earth and sea and sky, invented 
with mathematical and scientific accuracy and precision in ar- 
rangement. 


Delbruck, in his “Essays,” (p. 515), defends the whole phil- 
osophical system of force by asking, “By what right, then, do 
the States nowadays exist?) War has given Prussia, Silesia, 
Schleswig-Holstein, and Hanover; but, where did rights leave off 
and where might begin? Did the Confederation and the sovereign 
powers which formed it exist by right? During the past twenty- 
five years, that is, before 1899, the European powers had divided 
up Africa amongst themselves—by what right? In the next 
century they will partition Asia—by what right? What could a 
court of arbitration do in this case, where there is no law?” 


It is evident here that what Delbruck intends is not to ward off 
the general condemnation due Germany, for the war came later 
than his essay ; but his object is a timely word to show that all 
the powers of the world come under the same condemnation, 
where for years, yea centuries, they practiced the hellish’ 
theory of “might making right.” And as Germany began to 
apply this principle, she naturally with her allies was forced to 
expend herself to the accomplishment of her stupendous pur- 


220 Shall Jesus Find Faith on Earth? 


pose, and similar to the fall of other empires in history, it proved 
disastrous not only to herself but for the whole world. 

The same is true concerning Russia. Henry Cabot Lodge, com- 
menting on the deplorable situation, said, “Designing adventurers, 
men without a country, convinced an ignorant people that if they 
were allowed to abolish all property, to take from men the right 
to own what they had earned and saved, and to wreck civiliza- 
tion, all would be well. They have applied their so-called pana- 
cea. Instead of diminishing human suffering, they have caused 
more misery than the war itself.” 

‘“Mown down in the bloody swath of the battle’s aftermath,” 
as Longfellow put it, the Marxian seemed perfectly logical to fol- 
low the Nietzschian destructive theory, whose teaching of class 
struggle is bitterly opposed to the principle of Christ concern- 
ing man’s duty toward his fellow beings. For many years his 
utopian ideas have been faddishly admired, and in some instances 
practiced in civil government, and some benefit was derived for 
the wage earner. 

But, for the first time, “the full text of his theory of class 
consciousness dominating humanity is in effect,” said “The Con- 
tinent,” “which should govern the minds of all who labor with 
their hands, making them aware that their labor produces all 
the wealth, and therefore should have all the property and 
government in their hands. Cruel and malignant as Bolshevism 
is, it characterizes itself as a religion, absorbing all their aspira- 
tions for a fairer world and commanding a devotion ready for 
any martyrdom.” 

There is here seen the fulfillment of that prophetic word, “Go 
to now, ye rich men, weep and howl, for your miseries that shall 
come upon you. Ye have heaped treasures together in the last 
days. Behold, the hire of the laborers, which is of you kept back 
by fraud, crieth, and the cries of them are entered into the ears 
of the Lord of Sabaoth.” (Jas. 5:1-4). The pressure of the 
toiler, which is steadily increasing, disregarding all labor saving 
devices, is due to the multiplying wants of mankind, according to 


Shall Jesus Find Faith on Earth? | 


the natural law of supply and demand. He is asking, “Who is 
paying for the luxuries which others enjoy?’ He claims that he 
pays the price, and proves his displeasure by organization, leaves 
the old political parties, and turns toward the socialists, from bad 
to worse. 

According to Devas’ “Political Economy,” the word “social- 
ism,” in a wide sense may be taken to cover all theories attacking 
riches, as distinct from the abuse of riches; and this includes 
alike the extreme theories of Communists and Anarchists, the 
more elaborate theories of Collectivists, (Marxian), and the 
milder theories such as land nationalization and State Socialism. 
Bolshevism however, adheres to the Carl Marx philosophy in 
theory, but in practice it is barbarism, anarchism, worse than 
czarism, with the object to rule the world as against every 
standard of government excepting their own. 

Bolshevism believes in the abolition of marriage and in its 
place would put free love; the confiscation of all ecclesiastical 
buildings and the wealth of the rich for the government; the 
squelching of all religion as unnecessary, it being opium which 
has kept the people from asserting their rights; and, above all, 
it teaches the denial of the Christian doctrine of the incarnation 
of the Logos, the eternal Son of God in Jesus Christ. 

In the face of such conditions well might a press correspondent 
proclaim the fact that “What is wrong with the world is that we 
have forgotten to keep the faith of our fathers, orthodoxy has been 
assailed, discounted, discredited by the very people who should 
have been its strongest supporters. Kipling wrote the “Reces- 
sional,’ and England heeded to an extent. We are waiting for a 
Kipling to arouse the people and save orthodoxy for the world.” 

But, instead of the curtailment of the power of the beast, the 
book of Revelation, (c. 16,17), predicts its spread all the more, 
until the final victory of authority and restoration in the earth 
is secured through Him of whom the psalmist exclaims, (98:1), 
“O sing unto the Lord a new song; for He hath done marvellous 
things: His right hand, and His holy arm, hath gotten Him the 


222 Shall Jesus Find Faith on Earth? 


victory.” God will then have gained the victory by His own 
right hand! Delay is not due to His weakness; it is due to the 
fact that He has determined His times and seasons. He could 
accomplish this universe-wide triumph at any moment He might 
choose. It is determined that it shall be when the King returns. 
All is certainty with God! Well might we take warning from 
Bernard of Morlaix: 


“The world is very evil; 
The times are waxing late: 
Be sober and keep vigil; 
The Judge is at the gate; 
The Judge who comes in mercy, 
The Judge who comes in might, 
To terminate the evil, 
And vindicate the right.” 

Summarizing therefore all conclusions derived from certain 
aspects of the different branches of “the tree of knowledge of 
good and evil,’ spiritually interpreted and climaxed in the phil- 
osophy of history, where it is most noticeable that “knowledge 
comes, but wisdom lingers,” yet it is evident that the facts stand 
forth eloquently in their refutation of the fool who saith in 
his heart, “there is no God.” As only the blind would declare 
that there is no sun, yet it is possible for nature, experience, and 
God’s Word to voice attention, even as the apostate, but baffled, 
dying Julian was forced to exclaim, “Oh Galilean, Thou hast 


conquered !” 


What more stupendous proof of the fact of God in history 
than the answer to the question of the agnostic monarch seek- 
ing evidence that Christianity is what it claims to be,—that 
“the Jew,” even as he exists today, a people without a country, 
can never be overlooked nor denied their testimony. Just so Je- 
sus Christ is the secret power of the survival of weakness over 
the boastfulness and pride of ‘the fittest.’ 


If then history substantiates the fact of an existing God, it is 
also a preacher of judgment. This is most evident as we have 
seen from the way God so often confounded the false gods of 


Shall Jesus Find Faith on Earth? 223 


the nations and dashed in pieces the ‘invincible’ despotisms of the 
world. Was Napoleon right in believing that God was always on 
the side of the largest and strongest battalions? The then Czar 
of Russia knew better, when over against the philosophy of force 
he had the words engraved upon his commemorative medal, “Not 
unto me, not unto us, but UNTO THY NAME!” 

And then, what about the moral verities, concerning which 
history 1s so declarative? Corruption in any nation is the symp- 
tom of its weakness. Recognizing this, “its voice,’ as Farrar 
in “The World Pulpit’ echoed it, “is ever sounding across the 
centuries the eternal distinctions of right and wrong. Opinions 
alter, manners change, creeds rise and fall, but the moral law 
is written on the tablets of eternity. For every false word and 
unrighteous deed, for cruelty and oppression, for lust and vanity, 
the price has to be paid to the end. Justice and truth alone en- 
dure and live; injustice and falsehood may be long-lived, but 
doomsday comes to them at last.” 

History and prophecy have therefore joined to preach the 
warning of the ages to the nations of the present era, driving 
blindly toward the rocks on which so many ships of state have 
foundered in the past, even while the Christian philosophy, the 
revealed will and mercy of a long-suffering God extended a help- 
ing hand. Yet they stubbornly refused to accept. The last 
delirious attempt of man to deliver himself by a false world 
empire on the basis of the philosophy of force, will soon disap- 
pear as a storm in the night. 

How clearly all this is set forth by Daniel the prophet. What 
a time of judgment, the predicted world tribulation, after the 
removal of the Church, will fall upon the nations, culminating in 
the Armageddon of Rev. 16:16; all because of their utter dis- 
regard of the revealed will of God in Jesus Christ. The valley 
of Megiddo, where this final battle of the ages will be fought, 
has been God’s battle-ground in the past, where He several times 
judged the armies of the wicked. It was here that Jabin, the 
king of Hazor, with the united force of many kings, their nine 


224 ~~ Shall Jesus Find Faith on Earth? 


hundred chariots of iron, were destroyed by Jehova’s special in- 
tervention. Samson here with his elect few routed the Philis- 
tines, and here also David, conquered Goliath, the personification 
of the grim monster of force. 

Here also will take place the final Judgment of Nations, where 
God will revenge His principles and His Church. Armageddon, 
therefore, signifies the defeat and slaughter of nations. It will 
be the mobilization of the combined force of the world in an un- 
holy confederacy against the Jewish Remnant, Christ and His 
Church, for which and with whom He returns to meet the en- 
gagement. 

It will be a time of trouble such as never was since there was a 
nation. What an atheistic, powerful, monstrous world empire, 
with all outside it, represented in their most efficient militaristic 
forces from all over the world, in which all institutions of men 
will be interested; churches, capital, labor, science, philosophy, 
art and invention, perfected for wholesale murder; democracies, 
monarchies, socialism and anarchy, will be gathered for the bat- 
tle of the great day of God. 

What otherwise than absolute apostasy can occasion such a 
combination of force. They therefore take counsel together 
against the Lord Jesus Christ, determined once again to crush 
Him who is the rightful Sovereign of the earth, who long ago 
warningly declared, “Wait ye upon Me, until the day that I rise 
up to the prey: for my determination is to gather the nations, 
that [ may assemble the kingdoms, to pour out upon them mine 
indignation, even all my fierce anger: for all the earth shall be 
devoured with the fire of my jealousy, and I will burn the chaff 
with unquenchable fire.” (Zeph. 3:8; Matt. 3:12). 

“Then, in the days of these kings, shall the God of heaven set 
up a kingdom, which shall never be destroyed; and the kingdom 
shall not be left to other people, but it shall break in pieces and 
consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand forever. Foras- 
much as thou sawest that the Stone was cut out of the mountain 
without hands, and that it brake in pieces the iron, the brass, the 


Shall Jesus Find Faith on Earth? 225 


clay, the silver, and the gold; the great God hath made known 
what shall come to pass hereafter: and the dream is certain, and 
the interpretation thereof sure.” (Dan. 2:44-45). 


With the searchlight of Revelation then, as focussed upon the 
five branches of the tree of human knowledge, in ethnology, 
ancient philosophy, psychology, sociology, and the philosophy 
of history, it is indeed most commendable, that with many minds, 
able to discern “the signs of the times,” there is a special inter- 
est in the re-examination of the traditional estimate of the re- 
lationship between the natural and the super-natural. 


In the glorious consummation, it will be evident that “the 
ultimate word of prophecy is not pessimistic; it sees and reports 
the chasm into which this age is being precipitated,” ending with 
the collapse of the philosophy of force; “but looks across that 
chasm, and reveals the golden age.” God in the issue will be 
triumphant over all His foes, His grace and glory vindicated be- 
fore the whole universe of His creation, every opposing tongue 
silenced, every rebellious knee constrained to bow, “the whole 
earth filled with ‘the optimism’ that no agony of heart can ever 
blot out,’ and for ever and ever God will be all in all! 


How strikingly is all this set forth in the remarkable poem, 
true to the letter, concerning “The Day After Armageddon,” as 
presented by Horatius Bonar, from the text, Ezek. 7:14, “They 
have blown the trumpet, but none goeth to the battle”: 


1. ’Tis the summons to battle. 4. Tis the silence of silence. 
But the ery is unheard; Tower, tent, vale, and hill, 
The trumpet has spoken; Field, forest, and highway,— 
Not a warrior has stirred. All soundless and still. 


2. Hark, the summons to battle 5. No challenge is lifted; 


It has sounded again; No signal unfurled; 
Still louder and keener;— ’Tis man’s dark hour of terror, 
It has sounded in vain. The awe of the world. 


3. Yet a third time and shriller, 6. For the arm of Jehova 
That war-note has blown; Has been bared in its might 
But the answer that cometh And the sword of His vengeance 
Is the echo alone. Has been burnished to smite. 


226 


7. 


10. 


iM 


12. 


13. 


Through the ridges of battle 
His ploughshare has sped; 

And the tents of the living 
Are the tombs of the dead. 


. The rude roar of millions 


Is hushed in an hour; 
The array of the mighty 
Is crushed in its power. 


. Twas man’s proudest muster 


Of sinew and steel: 
His army of armies, 
Mail-clad to the heel. 


No sun had e’er dawned on 
So fearful a day, 

No trumpet had marshalled 
So dread an array. 


As if earth in her frenzy, 
From each region afar, 

Had poured forth her nations 
For the shock of that war. 


In the flush of their manhood, 


In the bud of their prime, 
In veteran ripeness,— 
The men of each clime. 


Came thronging and rushing, 
Like rivers in flood, 
Defying the terrors 
And vengeance of God. 


14. 


15. 


16. 


Lf. 


18. 


Shall Jesus Find Faith on Earth? 


For the ruler of darkness, 
The God of this world, 
Had summoned His armies, 

His banner unfurled. 


As the storm-cloud it gathered, 
As the lightning it sped; 

As the mist it had vanished ;— 
All is still as the dead. 


Like the desert at midnight,— 
Not a breath nor a beam; 

*Tis the silence of silence, 
The dream of a dream. 


Now, chains for the spoiler, 
Dark and swift be his doom. 
Thou hast trodden the nations,— 

Thy treading is come. 


Earth, cease now thy wailing, 
Thy wounds bleed no more; 

Lo, the curse is departing, 
Thy sorrows are o’er. 


. Rise, daughter of Judah; 


Awake now and sing; 
It has come, the glad kingdom, 
He has come, the great King. 


. Thy long night is ending 


Of sorrow and wrong; 
For shame there is glory, 
For weeping a song. 


21. The new morn is dawning 
Bursts forth the new sun; 
The new verdure is smiling, 
The new age is begun.” 









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BR125 .H54 
Shall Jesus find faith on earth? 


Princeton Theological Seminary—Speer Library 


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